G E N E RAT I O N Z : T H E C O N N E C T E D G E N E RAT I O NA N A L Y S I S O F N E W T E C H N O L O G Y A N D R I S K ’ S I N V O L V I N G T O D A Y ’ S Y O U T H

D a n i e l l e R o t h e n b e r g

A r g o s y U n i v e r s i t y

Dig i ta l Na t i ves

To d a y ’ s y o u n g a r e a l s o h i s t o r y ’ s fi r s t g e n e r a t i o n o f d i g i t a l

n a t i v e s . T h e o n l i n e w o r l d i s n ’ t s o m e t h i n g t h e y ’ v e h a d t o a d a p t

t o i t ’ s a l l t h e y ’ v e e v e r k n o w n ( Ta y l o r, 2 0 1 4 ) .

T h e “C o n n e c t e d “G e n e r a t i o n

• 75% of Generation Z youth age 13-17, own or have access to a smart phone(Pew Research Center).

• 78% of parents believe their children are becoming too exposed to technology(Marketing, 2014).

• 55% of parents are very concerned about social isolation (PR, N., 2015, April 22).

Dangers i n Techno logy• About 1 in 5 teens have posted or sent sexually

suggestive or nude pictures of themselves to others (The Harford County Examiner)

• Over 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their cell phones or the Internet. (I-SAFE foundation)

S n a p c h a t S c a re s

• Snapchat receives 375 requests from government officials for user data between November 2014 and February 2015.

• 172 were results of search warrants, 159 were actual subpoenas….

Re a s o n s f o r t e e n a g e i n t e r n e t u s e r s t o u s e s n a p c h a t

It's fun to use

Lots of my friends are using it

It's free

It's really convenient and easy to use

It's quicker than using social networks or text messages

It allows to message people on a direct, one-to-one basis

It's a more private way to chat than social networks

Other

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0%

69%

62%

54%

37%

31%

31%

30%

7%

Share of teenage Snapchat users

Source: Global Web Index

W h y a r e t e e n a g e r s n o t m o r e c o n c e r n e d a b o u t t h e i r p r i v a c y

o n l i n e ?

• Both parents and young people continue to believe that online sites are safe as long as caution and judgment are employed, and young people believe their parents trust them to make smart decisions online (McAfee, 2013).

R i s k y o n l i n e b e h a v i o r o f y o u t h s i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s a s o f A p r i l 2 0 1 4

Do not turn off location or GPS services across apps

Posted something online that they regret

Have not enabled privacy settings to protect content

Have posted home address online

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0%

52%

49%

39%

14%

Share of respondents

Source: McAfee; ID 312647

C y b e r- b u l l y i n g

• About half of young people have experienced some form of cyber bullying, and 10 to 20 percent experience it regularly (The Cyberbullying Research Center)

• Only 1 in 10 teens tells a parent if they have been a cyber-bully victim (The Harford County Examiner)

• Cyber bullying victims are more likely to have low self-esteem and to consider suicide (The Cyberbullying Research Center)

Percentage of US students who were cyber bullied as of school year 2010-2011, by type of cyber

bullying

Hurtfu

l info

rmat

ion

on in

tern

et

Purp

osely sh

ared

priv

ate

info

rmat

ion

Unwan

ted

cont

act v

ia e

-mail

Unwan

ted

cont

act v

ia in

stan

t mes

saging

Unwan

ted

cont

act v

ia te

xt m

essa

ging

Unwan

ted

cont

act v

ia o

nline

gam

ing

Purp

osef

ul e

xclusio

n fro

m a

n on

line

com

mun

ity0.0%0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%3.5%4.0%4.5%5.0%

3.6%

1.1%

1.9%

2.7%

4.4%

1.5%1.2%

Share

of

stu

dents

Source: US Department of Justice; US Department of Education; NCES; ID 291025

Global opinion on the severity of cyber bullying and current methods to address it as of November

2011

Cyber bullying is a fundamentally different type of bullying that needs special attention from parents and schools, in addition to existing efforts to address bullying in general

Cyber bullying is the same behavior seen in other forms of bullying, just through different technologies, and so it should

be addressed through existing anti-bullying measures among parents and schools

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

77%

23%

Share

of

resp

ondents

Source: IPSOS

D e p re s s i o n & S u i c i d e R i s k s

• “Youth who experienced traditional bullying or cyberbullying, as either an offender or a victim, had more suicidal thoughts and were more likely to attempt suicide than those who had not experienced such forms of peer aggression”(Hinduja & Patchin,2010).

• 29% of teenager’s ages 13-23 reported intentionally searching online to find information on depression and only 6% of parents were aware of this. (McAfee, 2013)

• 5% of teenager’s ages 13-23 reported intentionally searching online to find information on suicide and only 2% of parents were aware of this. (McAfee, 2013)

O b e s i t y l i n ke d t o d e p r e s s i o n ;O b e s i t y l i n k e d t o t e c h n o l o g y ?

• 13.7% of students were obese, 16.6% of students were overweight, 31.1% of students described themselves as slightly or very overweight.

• 41.3% of students played video or computer games or used a computer for something that was not school work for 3 or more hours per day on an average school day.

• American Humane Association (2015) reports 71% of parents are very concerned about childhood obesity (PR, N., 2015, April 22).

Tex t i n g a n d D r i v i n g

• A study conducted by the American Humane Association (2015), reports more parents were concerned over texting and driving (87%) than they were Terrorism (43%) and War (42%) combined.

• In 2010, the number of teens who text and drive has doubled (Gaddis, 2014).

C o n c l u s i o n

C y b e r b u l l y i n g , s e x t i n g , i n t e r n e t a d d i c t i o n a n d a d d i c t i o n t o s o c i a l

m e d i a , t e x t i n g w h i l e d r i v i n g , p r i v a c y o n l i n e a n d t h e d a n g e r s o f s e x u a l

p r e d a t o r s w h o t a r g e t c h i l d r e n o n l i n e a r e r e a l l i f e i s s u e s t o d a y ’ s G e n e r a t i o n

Z y o u t h a r e e x p e r i e n c i n g a n d a w a r e n e s s i s c r i t i c a l a n d n e e d e d

m o v i n g f o r w a r d f o r b o t h p a r e n t s a n d c h i l d r e n a l i k e .