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Electronic-media harassment among secondary school adolescents in Ibadan municipality Nigeria: myth or reality?
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  1. A O Sangowawa*,
  2. A O Adebiyi
  1. Correspondence Institute of Child Health, College of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, PMB 5116 Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This pilot was conducted to determine the incidence and forms of electronic-media harassment among secondary school students. Students who owned a mobile phone and had access to the Internet were selected via multi-stage sampling. History of harassment in the 3-month period preceding the study was obtained.

Results A total of 129 students- 65(52.4%) boys and 59(47.6%) girls with mean age of 13.9(±1.9) years participated. Eighty-four(66.1%) were from private and 43(33.9%) government-owned schools; 65(51.2%) were in junior and 62(48.8%) in senior classes; 88.2% lived with both parents. All respondents had personal phones and 66(52.0%) had access to the Internet. Forty-three (33.9%) had suffered electronic harassment while 19(15.0%) had harassed others. Twenty-four (18.9%) were victims only, all 19(15%) perpetrators were also victims. The commonest modes of harassment were text messages 31(24.4%) and phone calls 25(19.5%). Of the 66 with Internet access, four each had experienced harassment through email and in chat rooms and two via websites. Twenty-one (16.5%) had harassed others via text messages, 21(16.5%) through phone calls and 6(4.7%) through picture or video clips. Perpetrators were mainly boys. The incident was often reported to friends, parents/guardians, other adults in school, class teachers. Factors predictive of being a victim were public schooling(OR 4.9, 95%CI 2.0 to 11.9), and being in a senior class(OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.6 to 8.6).

Conclusion This pilot revealed that electronic media harassment was occurring among the students. This phenomenon thus needs to be further investigated and efforts put in place to curb it.

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