Digital literacy among Flemish adolescents: how do they cope with online risks?

SOFIE VANDONINCK, LEEN D'HAENENS & VERONICA DONOSO Digital literacy among Flemish adolescents: how do they cope with online risks? The internet offers adolescents a huge window of opportunities. Moreover, young people face the risks of being confronted with spam, gruesome or violent images, pornography or misleading information about drugs, racism, suicide, etc. We surveyed 815 Flemish 15 to 19 year-olds about the online risks they have been confronted with and how they cope with these risks. We controlled for digital literacy, socio-demographics and personality traits. Adolescents with a high level of internet literacy tend to cope with more risks. An exception are adolescents enrolled in vocational education: although their level of internet literacy is lower, their exposure to online risks remains high. High self-confidence goes together with more exposure to risky online content. A good parent-child relationship pays off as it diminishes the contact with aggressive, sexual or value-based content. Adolescents generally tend not to consult anybody when it comes to coping with risks and negative experiences online.