research-article

ICTs use and cyberspace risks faced by adolescents in Namibia

Authors:

Pardon Blessings Maoneke,

Fungai Bhunu Shava,

Attlee Munyaradzi Gamundani,

Mercy Bere-Chitauro,

Isaac NhamuAuthors Info & Claims

AfriCHI '18: Proceedings of the Second African Conference for Human Computer Interaction: Thriving Communities

Article No.: 11, Pages 1 - 9

https://doi.org/10.1145/3283458.3283483

Published: 03 December 2018 Publication History

Abstract

There is a paucity of research on ICTs use and risks and/or misuse by adolescents in the developing world. In addition, the nature and extent of cyberspace risks associated with adolescents of different age groups and gender is yet to be fully understood. ICTs are a critical developmental tool but if not handled with caution, they can be harmful. This study researched on ICTs use and misuse by adolescents based in Namibia. Focus was on establishing cyberspace risks that adolescents are exposed to. A quantitative research methodology was used. About 729 respondents from urban and rural areas were engaged during data collection. The respondents' age ranged from thirteen to seventeen years. ICT uses and common cyberspace risks were analysed according to age and gender. Findings show that mobile phones are widely used for accessing the Internet. When online, adolescents prefer social networking, watching movies, playing games, researching health-related issues and doing school work among other activities. Observed cyberspace risks include cyberbullying and sexual abuse-oriented risks. In addition, adolescents across all genders are open to befriending strangers online and they consider sharing contact details with strangers. While cyberspace risks are common across gender and age groups, female adolescents appear more prone to cyberspace risks. Results also show that exposure to cyberspace risks increase with age. These study findings can be critical in informing the development of policy frameworks aimed at protecting children from cyberspace risks.

References

[1]

Internet World Stats 2018. Internet World Stats: Usage and Population Statistics. Internet Users Statistics for Africa. Retrieved from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

[2]

Icek Ajzen. 1991. The theory of planned behavior. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. (1991).

[3]

Christopher Barlett and Sarah M Coyne. 2014. A Meta - Analysis of Sex Differences in Cyber - Bullying Behavior: The Moderating Role of Age. 40, April (2014), 474--488.

[4]

Patricio Cabello Cádiz. 2013. A qualitative approach to the use of ICTs and its risks among socially disadvantaged early adolescents and adolescents in Madrid, Spain. Communications 38, 1 (2013), 61--83.

[5]

M Catherine Cappadocia, Wendy M Craig, and Debra Pepler. 2013. Cyberbullying: Prevalence, Stability, and Risk Factors During Adolescence. (2013).

[6]

Alan Dix. 2017. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing Human - computer interaction, foundations and new paradigms. 42, (2017), 122--134.

Digital Library

[7]

Adam Fletcher, Natasha Fitzgerald-yau, Rebecca Jones, Elizabeth Allen, Russell M Viner, and Chris Bonell. 2014. Brief report: Cyberbullying perpetration and its associations with socio-demographics, aggressive behaviour at school, and mental health outcomes. J. Adolesc. 37, 8 (2014), 1393--1398.

[8]

Attlee Munyaradzi Gamundani, Isaac Nhamu, Fungai BhunuShava, and Mercy Bere. 2015. Social networking as both a cause for concern and a window for hope-A focus on child online protection in Namibia.

[9]

Sibukele Gumbo, Nobert Jere, and Alfredo Terzoli. 2012. A qualitative analysis to determine the readiness of rural communities to adopt ICTs: a Siyakhula Living Lab case study. In IST Africa Conference Proceedings.

[10]

Leslie Haddon, Sonia Livingstone, and EU Kids Online network. 2012. EU Kids Online: national perspectives. October (2012), 1--73.

[11]

Dorothea Kleine, David Hollow, and Sammia Poveda. Children, ICT and Development: Capturing the potential, meeting the challenges.

[12]

Constantinos M Kokkinos, Nafsika Antoniadou, Eleni Dalara, Anastasia Koufogazou, and Angeliki Papatziki. 2013. Cyber-Bullying, Personality and Coping among Pre-Adolescents. 3, December (2013), 55--69.

Digital Library

[13]

Robin M Kowalski, Gary W Giumetti, Amber N Schroeder, and Micah R Lattanner. 2014. Bullying in the Digital Age: A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of Cyberbullying Research Among Youth. 140, 4 (2014), 1073--1137.

[14]

Kristin Vold Lexander. 2011. Texting and african language literacy. New Media Soc. 13, 3 (2011), 427--443.

[15]

Brett J Litwiller and Amy M Brausch. 2013. Cyber Bullying and Physical Bullying in Adolescent Suicide: The Role of Violent Behavior and Substance Use. (2013), 675--684.

[16]

Sonia Livingstone, Leslie Haddon, and Anke Görzig. 2012. Risks and safety on the internet: the perspective of European children: full findings and policy implications from the their parents in 25 countries Risks and safety on the internet The perspective of European children. (2012).

[17]

Pardon Blessings Maoneke. 2014. A MODEL FOR ATTAINING EXTENDED E-COMMERCE ADOPTION AND USE BY HOSPITALITY SMMES IN THE EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE.

[18]

Dejo Olowu. 2014. Cyber-Based Obscenity and the Sexual Exploitation of Children via the Internet: Implications for Africa. In Proceedings of the African Cyber Citizenship Conference 2014, 115--121.

[19]

Anicia N. Peters, Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, and Brian E. Mennecke. 2015. Cultural influences on Facebook practices: A comparative study of college students in Namibia and the United States. Comput. Human Behav. 49, (2015), 259--271.

Digital Library

[20]

Su-jin Yang Robert, Stewart Jae-min Kim, Sung-wan Kim Il-seon Shin, Michael E Dewey, and Sean Maskey Jin-sang Yoon. 2013. Differences in predictors of traditional and cyber-bullying: a 2-year longitudinal study in Korean school children. (2013), 309--318.

[21]

Joe Rollins. 2015. Sexting Cyberchildren: Gender, Sexuality, and Childhood in Social Media and Law. Sex. Cult. 19, 1 (2015), 57--71.

[22]

Julia Barli &Nacute; Ska, Anna Szuster, and Miko Ł A J Winiewski. 2013. Cyberbullying among Adolescent Bystanders: Role of the Communication Medium, Form of Violence, and Empathy. 51, October 2012 (2013), 37--51.

[23]

Peter K. Smith, Jess Mahdavi, Manuel Carvalho, Sonja Fisher, Shanette Russell, and Neil Tippett. 2008. Cyberbullying: Its nature and impact in secondary school pupils. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry Allied Discip. (2008).

[24]

Christoph Stork and Enrico Calandro. 2011. Internet gone mobile in Namibia. (2011).

[25]

Christoph Stork, Enrico Calandro, and Alison Gillwald. 2013. Internet going mobile: Internet access and use in 11 African countries. Info 15, 5 (2013), 34--51.

[26]

Ibrahim Tanrikulu, Sadegül Akbaba Altun, Özgür Erdur Baker, and Oya Yerin Güneri. 2015. Misuse of ICTs among Turkish children and youth: A study on newspaper reports. Int. J. Hum. Sci. 12, 1 (2015), 1230.

[27]

United Nations. 2014. E-Government Survey 2014.

[28]

Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, Naska Winschiers-Goagoses, Kasper Rodil, Edwin Blake, Tariq Zaman, Gereon Koch Kapuire, and Richard Kamukuenjandje. 2013. Moving away from Erindi-roukambe: Transferability of a rural community-based co-design. In 12th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries.

[29]

Cheng-fang Yen, Pinchen Yang, Peng-wei Wang, Huang-chi Lin, and Tailing Liu. 2014. Association between school bullying levels / types and mental health problems among Taiwanese adolescents. 55, (2014), 405--413.

Cited By

Yen JChamanadjian C(2025)Cyberbullying and Online AggressionPediatric Clinics of North America10.1016/j.pcl.2024.09.00472:2(333-349)Online publication date: Apr-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2024.09.004
Kennedy RBryson SEllsworth KKapur I(2025)Fake Profiles, Mean Comments, and Toxic Communities: College Students’ Perspectives on Cyberbullying Across Social Media PlatformsInternational Journal of Bullying Prevention10.1007/s42380-025-00295-4Online publication date: 5-Mar-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-025-00295-4
Quayyum FFreberg G(2024)Designing Cybersecurity Awareness Solutions for Young People in Rural Developing Countries: Insights and Lessons LearnedUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-60881-0_1(3-18)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60881-0_1
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

ICTs use and cyberspace risks faced by adolescents in Namibia
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

Recommendations

Sexting experiences and motivations among adolescents with ADHD and ASD
Abstract
Sexting (i.e., to send and receive self-produced sexual materials) has become a common element in adolescents’ socio-sexual exploration. Although often harmless, sexting also involves the risk of abuse, and potentially more so for some ...
Highlights
- Adolescents, including those with ADHD/ASD, mainly use sexting for sexual gratification and exploration.
Longitudinal association of adolescents’ perceptions of parental mediations and compulsive Internet use
Abstract
Today's adolescents do not know a life without the Internet, which is here to stay. Much of adolescents' Internet consumption takes place at home. Accordingly, it is imperative that parents are centrally positioned to aid adolescents to maximize ...
Highlights
- Parental encouragement reduced adolescents' compulsive Internet use (CIU).
- CIU constantly triggered parental worry in all time periods.
- CIU predicted parental monitoring only across the school years.
- CIU instigated parental ...
Meeting online contacts in real life among adolescents: The predictive role of psychosocial wellbeing and internet-specific parenting

Meeting online contacts in real life (IRL) has been associated with several risks, particularly for adolescents. This study aims to gain more insight into the prevalence of adolescents' real life meetings with online contacts and the prevalence of ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

AfriCHI '18: Proceedings of the Second African Conference for Human Computer Interaction: Thriving Communities

December 2018

373 pages

ISBN:9781450365581

DOI:10.1145/3283458

Editors:
Heike Winschiers-Theophilus
Namibia University of Science and Technology Windhoek, Namibia
,
Izak van Zyl
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
,
Naska Goagoses
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany
,
Dharm Singh Jat
Namibia University of Science and Technology, Namibia
,
Elefelious G. Belay
University of Milan, Italy
,
Rita Orji
Dalhousie University, Canada
,
Anicia Peters
Namibia University of Science and Technology, Namibia
,
General Chairs:
Med Salim Bouhlel
University of Sfax, Tunisia
,
Nobert Jere
Walter Sisulu University, South Africa

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 03 December 2018

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

AfriCHI '18

AfriCHI '18: 2nd African Conference for Human Computer Interaction

December 3 - 7, 2018

Windhoek, Namibia

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

8
Total Citations
View Citations
245
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)37
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

Reflects downloads up to 03 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Yen JChamanadjian C(2025)Cyberbullying and Online AggressionPediatric Clinics of North America10.1016/j.pcl.2024.09.00472:2(333-349)Online publication date: Apr-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2024.09.004
Kennedy RBryson SEllsworth KKapur I(2025)Fake Profiles, Mean Comments, and Toxic Communities: College Students’ Perspectives on Cyberbullying Across Social Media PlatformsInternational Journal of Bullying Prevention10.1007/s42380-025-00295-4Online publication date: 5-Mar-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42380-025-00295-4
Quayyum FFreberg G(2024)Designing Cybersecurity Awareness Solutions for Young People in Rural Developing Countries: Insights and Lessons LearnedUniversal Access in Human-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-60881-0_1(3-18)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60881-0_1
Nhinda GShava F(2023)Cybersecurity Practices of Rural Underserved Communities in Africa: A Case Study from Northern Namibia2023 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Computing and Data Communication Systems (icABCD)10.1109/icABCD59051.2023.10220449(1-7)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/icABCD59051.2023.10220449
Quayyum FBueie JCruzes DJaccheri LVidal J(2021)Understanding parents' perceptions of children's cybersecurity awareness in NorwayProceedings of the Conference on Information Technology for Social Good10.1145/3462203.3475900(236-241)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3462203.3475900
Rita MShava F(2021)Chatbot Driven Web-based Platform for Online Safety and Sexual Exploitation Awareness and Reporting in Namibia2021 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Computing and Data Communication Systems (icABCD)10.1109/icABCD51485.2021.9519375(1-5)Online publication date: 5-Aug-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/icABCD51485.2021.9519375
Frohlich KNieminen MPinomaa A(2020)Factors Influencing the Adoption of m-Government: Perspectives from a Namibian Marginalised Communitye-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries10.1007/978-3-030-41593-8_17(219-236)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41593-8_17
Kahimise JShava F(2019)An analysis of children’s online activities and behaviours that expose them to cybercrimes2019 27th Telecommunications Forum (TELFOR)10.1109/TELFOR48224.2019.8971089(1-4)Online publication date: Nov-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/TELFOR48224.2019.8971089

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten