This book engages with contemporary, and often polarizing, debates surrounding the risks of adolescent use of digital media and internet technologies.
By drawing on multiple research studies, the text synthesizes current understandings of the impacts of social network use, online gaming, pornography, and phenomena, including cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and internet addiction, to develop recommendations for the effective identification of at-risk youth, as well as strategies for informed communication about online risks and opportunities. It shows how media discussion of risks to children and teenagers from new technology is highly emotive and often exaggerated, rooted in the “moral panic” surrounding new cultural practices that young people engage in, but which adults do not understand. Online risks are thus conceptualized as centering on three areas, specific to adolescence, which have undergone radical changes due to new internet technology. These include young people’s identity, the types of content that are accessed, and social relationships. The author shows how these matters stem from the potential of new technology to establish new interpersonal connections, emphasizing how it brings opportunities, as much as risks. As such, he provides a uniquely balanced discussion of potential dangers, while also emphasizing the opportunities for social, academic, and personal growth which new technologies afford young people.
It will be indispensable for researchers and clinicians interested in assessing levels of online risk, as well as scholars and educators with interests in cyberpsychology, social psychology, cyber culture, social aspects of computing and media, and adolescent development.
Author(s): Gordon P. D. Ingram
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 157
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction: “Moral Panics” and the Debates over Online Risks
1.1 Introduction: How Online Risks Are Portrayed in the Media
1.2 Why Moral Panics Tend to Focus on Young People and New Aspects of Culture
1.3 The Scientific Response to Moral Panics about New Technologies
1.4 Outline of the Argument
1.4.1 Theme 1 – Connections
1.4.2 Theme 2 – Risks
1.4.3 Theme 3 – Opportunities
Notes
References
Chapter 2: New Identities: Visual Communication, Screen Time, and Young People’s Wellbeing
2.1 Changes in Young People’s Identities with Age
2.2 Visual Communication Online: A Foreign Language for Parents
2.3 From “Screen Time” to Problematic Internet Use
2.4 The Dark Side of Visual Communication: Negative Social Comparison, Low Self-esteem, and Depression
2.5 Body Image
2.6 New Opportunities for Mental Health Interventions
2.7 Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 3: New Content: Social Gaming, Online Pornography, and Knowledge Sharing
3.1 Why Is New Content So Threatening to Old Moral Values?
3.2 The Rise of Gamer Culture
3.3 Violent Video Games: A Classic Moral Panic?
3.4 Problems with Pornography
3.5 Risks to Privacy from Sharing Content
3.6 The Bright Side of Sharing Content: Informal Knowledge Networks
3.7 Conclusion
Note
References
Chapter 4: New Relationships: Online Dating, Cyberbullying, and Intergroup Contact
4.1 Changes in Young People’s Social Networks with Age
4.2 New Kinds of Connections Online
4.3 Looking for the Right Swipe on Tinder
4.4 Cyberharassment, Cyberstalking, and Revenge Porn
4.5 Cyberbullying: New Problems or Old Patterns?
4.6 International Networking: An Online Contact Hypothesis
4.7 Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1 Outline of the Argument
5.2 Recommendations
5.3 Complications of COVID-19
5.4 The Future of Online Interactions
References
Index
