(1025.pdf) USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN SECONDARY EDUCATION STUDENTS AND IMPACT OF A RISK PREVENTION PROGRAMME ASSOCIATED TO THE INTERNET

摘要

Background. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministryof Public Health and Social Affairs are developing, in the current academic year 2012-13, the 3rdNational Plan for Co-living and Improvement of School Safety. Amongst the specific actions stated inthis plan, it is worth mentioning some presentations about safety issues affecting the students, fromwhich, we can emphasise those related to risks associated to the use of the Internet. Objective:Analise the impact that this project has on some Compulsory Secondary Education (E.S.O.) students.Procedure. A Civil Guard officer, specifically trained in New Technologies and associated risks, gaveone-hour presentation to students from the four compulsory secondary educations years, duringschool time. The selected Educational Centre that agreed to such proposal, was Antares School(state-funded) in Reinosa, Spain; this school is a small private centre which, with just one line ofsecondary education students, offers a clearly personalised teaching method. Different aspectsencompassing the spectrum of potential risks linked to the use of the Internet were dealt with, withspecial emphasis on those derived from the participation of teenagers in social networks(Cyberbullying, Grooming, Sexting, etc.). After the presentation, a questionnaire drawn up ad hoc wasgiven to the students that had taken part in it, by means of which data regarding aspects defining theirparticipation in social networking were obtained (time of use, external control, network choice,importance weighting, etc.), as well as elements enhancing the role of the Civil Guard Corps in thisactivity. Findings and Conclusions. The data obtained show a debut in social networks around the ageof 12, pointing out, in this age group, Tuenti, followed by Twitter and Facebook. In the early years ofsecondary education, the students? parents have strict control of the internet use their children makeof, therefore this use is significantly reduced in the last year of the second cycle of secondaryeducation. As the age of the students increases so does the perception of need to use socialnetworking, being this sometimes deemed as essential. This phenomenon is diminished by the currentdissemination of instant messaging systems, such as Whatsapp. In regards with the content with mostimpact on the students, the following can be pointed out: 1) real testimonials of dramatic casesdescribed; 2) cyberbulling methods, specially, that related to sex; 3) loss of privacy along with the lackof control of personal data available on line. On the other hand, the degree of knowledge described inthe presentation was directly proportional to the age of the students. They made a positive meaningfulassessment of this preventive initiative explicit, taking into account the fact that it was provided by aPublic Security Service officer, therefore the perception that they initially had about this institutionimproved.