One in every three adolescents who were exposed to internet has gone through negative experiences of some kind or the other, a recent study conducted by CRY (Child Rights & You) has revealed. Findings of the study further suggest that a staggering 75% among the adolescent users have no clear knowledge of the minimum age required for creating any Social Media accounts; and as many as two among every five users are open to accept requests from friends of friends and/or complete strangers, thus becoming more vulnerable to online threats and hazards. There is need to think about their online safety.

In a bid to assess the impact of internet and to study the pattern of its usage among adolescents of Delhi and NCR, and also to understand the benefits and risks involved, CRYhas recently conducted an exploratory study in collaboration with Forum for Learning and Action with Innovation and Rigour (FLAIR). The study is named ‘Online Safety and Internet Addiction: A Study Conducted Amongst Adolescents in Delhi-NCR’. Findings of the study have revealed important trends assciated to internet usage, safety and addiction among adolescents.

The study was conducted among 630 adolescents across eight schools in Delhi-NCR within the age gourp of 13 to 18 years showed that adolescents had considerably easy access to the Internet, with 93 percent of the respondents accessing internet at their residence. It aslo revealed that 60 percent of the boys and 40 percent of the girls among the respondents owned their own device. Almost half of the respondents reportedly used two or more devices to access the Internet.

Some trends revealed by the Study

  • 40% of the respondes used Internet as a studying-aid, while 38% of them used it as a resource for extra-curricular activities.
  • 76% of the respondents used internet for less than two hours per day. 8% of the respondents said that they accepted friendship/connect request only from people they knew, while the rest said they accessed the Internet for more than four hours a day.
  •  80% of the boys and 59% of the girls had social media accounts. 31% of the users had more than two accounts.
  •  Three in every five adolescents (63%) of the respondents said that they accepted friendship/connect request only from people they knew, while the rest said thay accepted requests from friends of friends and strangers.
  • According to the study, home is the place where maximum access to the internet happens from. More than 93% of the respondents said that they accessed the internet from their residence.
  • One in every three adolescent users reported going through negative experience on the internet, while around 10% of them disclosed being subjected to cyber-bullying.
  • Only one in every two adolescents reported cyber-bullying incidents. it is also noteworthy that cyber-bullying was seen less among adolescents who did not have social media accounts and who did have knowledge about NCERT gudelines for Internet Safety. However, they experienced it due to some or other reason.
  •  Only 35% of the respondents had knowledge about NCERT Internet Safety Guidelines.
  •  Nearly 90% of respondents knew the minimum age for buying SIM cards.
  •  Findings also suggest that maximum number of respondents accessed the internet from their parent’s devices.
  •  According to the study, internet addiction tended to increase with age and was greater amongst those adolescents who had their own room at home, has their own mobile devices, and did have both working parents.

Extensive exposure is a serious concern

Soha Moitra, the Regional Director of CRY (North) believes that the extensive exposure of under-age users to the cyber-space raises a serious concern. She said, “In the Indian context, the usage of internet among the masses (adults and children) has grown exponentially over the last decade. While this growth is fantastic since it opens up massive avenues of opportunities for people, concerns over online safety continue to linger and manifest themselves in incresingly sophisticated ways.”