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LODDON MALLEE - Cyber Safe Kids

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Table 4. What best describes your online friends?<br />

Most of my friends<br />

online I know in real<br />

life<br />

I know about half of<br />

my online friends in<br />

real life<br />

I haven‟t met most<br />

of my online friends<br />

in real life<br />

Year 7-8 16 (61.5%) 2 (7.7%) 8 (30.7%)<br />

Year 9-10 47 (83.9%) 7 (12.5%) 2 (3.6%)<br />

Year 11 6 (75%) 1 (12.5%) 1 (12.5%)<br />

Of the 129 grade 4-6 students who have online friends they do not know in real life 12 (9.3%)<br />

reported that they have been asked to meet new online friends in real life and 10 reported that<br />

they have met online friends in real life.<br />

Of the 82 year 7-10 students who have online friends they do not know in real life 36 (44.4%)<br />

reported that they have been asked to meet new online friends and of these 26 students reported<br />

that they actually followed through on this invitation.<br />

Of the 8 year 11 students who have online friends they do not know in real life, 4 (50%) have<br />

been asked to meet new online friends and of these 3 students reported that they actually<br />

followed through on this invitation.<br />

If they indicated that they had met an online friend in real life (only students in year 7-12 were<br />

asked this question) they were then asked the following open ended question “what it was like<br />

meeting an online friend in real life?” For quite a number of young people their new online<br />

friends were game players and they met face to face at a gaming convention and reported this<br />

to be a positive experience. Some said it was good to see what people look like in real life and<br />

one reported “great & went out for a month.” There were no reports of being endangered by the<br />

meeting, but one student reported “not very comforting.”<br />

COMPULSIVE INTERNET USE<br />

It was important to understand not only what children and young people do on the internet but<br />

also whether their internet use was experienced as compulsive, out of their control, or having a<br />

negative effect on their lives. An adolescent internet addiction questionnaire was developed by<br />

Dr Reid from an adult version and students in year 9-12 completed this questionnaire.<br />

All students completed questions about how long they spent on the internet on a normal school<br />

day and weekend day and also how they felt when they were away from the internet.<br />

26 LMCP Bendigo Region Report

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