Internet Safety

Internet Safety

Yuriko Sasaki (University at Albany, State University of New York, USA) and Jon Hobbs (Evaluation and Training Institute, USA)
Copyright: © 2012 |Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0315-8.ch079

Abstract

Internet safety has become a great concern in daily life. This entry provides information about Internet safety in terms of: (1) psychological well-being; (2) online privacy; (3) cyberbullying; and (4) exposure to sexual content. As part of the narrative, the authors discuss problematic Internet use, online communication and psychological factors, breaches of online privacy, privacy concerns, privacy protection behaviors (online privacy), cyberbullying (Internet harassment), online pornography, and sexual offenders. For each topic, the authords identify factors that are related to Internet safety and the potential for harm in online and offline contexts.
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Psychological Well-Being

Psychological well-being has been a topic of interest from the beginning of Internet safety research. In his seminal paper, “Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being?” Kraut and collegues (1998) documented the negative effects of the Internet, namely displacing offline social activity and personal relationships. In a later paper, Kraut and his co-authors walked back some of their strongest statements about the negative effects of the Internet, but also found that personal characteritsics (personality type) mediated the negative effects of problematic Internet use (Kraut et al., 2002).

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