NEW DELHI: One in every three adolescents who were exposed to internet has gone through negative experiences of some kind and almost half of adolescents in Delhi-NCR are addicted to it, a study by NGO Child Rights and You has revealed.
Findings of the survey further suggest that a staggering 75 per cent among the ages 13-18 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.
The study “Online Safety and Internet Addiction: A Study Conducted Amongst Adolescents in Delhi-NCR” has thrown light on significant trends associated to internet usage, safety and addiction among adolescents. It was conducted among 630 adolescents across eight schools in Delhi-NCR showed that adolescents have considerably easy access to the Internet, with 93 per cent of the respondents accessing internet at their homes.
Explaining the objective behind the survey, Soha Moitra, the regional director of CRY (North) said, “Online safety emerges as an important protection aspect to the well-being of children and youth.”
“While, we recognize that the internet is a vital medium for participation and expression of children, it is the duty of parents, communities, the state, and the society at large to ensure that children are both protected and empowered to protect themselves from online addiction and threats. This was the premise of undertaking the study, where we intended to understand children’s knowledge, practices and lived experiences of the online world,” she said.
The study also revealed that 6 per cent of the boys and 40 per cent of the girls among the respondents owned their own device. Almost half of the adolescent users (48 per cent ) displayed some level of addiction to the Internet.
Victims of cyber-bullying
Around 10 per cent adolescent internet users were subjected to cyber-bullying and one out of the two among them reported such incidents, said a study by child rights body Child Rights and You (CRY)