Internet Users' Habits and Cyber Awareness: A Cross Sectional Study

India has witnessed an exponential growth of internet users in the recent years and the cybercrime which resulted as unavoidable byproduct of greater internet usages, has also witnessed an exponential growth. User's Internet habits play an important role in cybercrime victimization. In the present study, a cross- sectional study was done among various sections of internet users in the district of Gautambuddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. Cyber awareness, cybercrime victimization, exposer to motivated offenders (internet hours per day), online security measure awareness, popularity of social media platforms, sources of online information and online habits of the internet users were examined for ascertaining the presence of gendered differences (if any). Cyber awareness in females was found to be significantly more than the males in seven items out of the twelve items of the cyber awareness construct. Majority of the respondents felt that women were soft target of cybercrimes. Males outnumbered the females significantly in watching pornographic content online. Males were found significantly exposed more to internet than the males. Females were found to be significantly less aware than males as far as online security measures were concerned. Males were found to be using social media sites significantly more than the females. Gendered differences were also found between accessing the sources of online information.