Abstract
Exposure to online risks (i.e. being bullied online, receiving sexual images and messages, and meeting online contacts offline) may or may not be harmful to those exposed. In fact, a majority of children will not experience any negative effects. Yet, children's personal characteristics can have an impact on their perception of harm and their resilience. This chapter will discuss the relative impact of socio-demographics (gender, age, SES), psychological factors (self-efficacy, sensation seeking and emotional problems) and children's involvement in online activities (digital literacy) on their feelings and self-mediated strategies as ways of coping with and developing resilience towards the online risks under study. Subjective harm is measured in terms of severity (how upset were they?) and duration (for how long did this feeling persist?). Following our threefold classification (Livingstone & Haddon, 2009), exposure to sexual images constitutes a content risk (child as receiver of mass production). Cyberbullying is a conduct risk (child as actor, victim more specifically). Sexting and meeting online contacts offline can entail contact (child as participant) and conduct risks (child as actor).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Children, Risk and Safety on the Internet. Research and policy challenges in comparative Perspective. |
| Editors | S. Livingstone, L. Haddon, A. Görzig |
| Publisher | Policy Press, London |
| Pages | 205-218 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-84742-882-0 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2012 |
Keywords
- children and internet
- resilience