Prevention Of Adolescents’ Risky Behavior In The Global Network

Abstract

The problem of risk and prevention of adolescents’ risky behavior is one of the central issues in social pedagogy and psychology of personal health. Risk in these areas is understood as the probability of occurrence of negative consequences for health as a result of use of the Internet. The Internet actively fills the information space in all countries and is the basic means of creating the information society. The wide implementation of information technology in the life of adolescents has both positive and negative consequences. The negative aftereffects of the long-term use of information technology are narrowing the range of interests, escaping from reality in the virtual world and developing cyber dependence. At the biological level, adolescents are characterized by reactions of emancipation, association with peers and various hobbies that determine the search character of behavior and "tests of adult life." The mission of parents and social educators is to develop adequate forms of behavior, since ignorance and lack of social experience, the pressure of peers and friends can lead to risky (cyber-dependent) behavior. The paper deals with the essence, types, and characteristics of risky (cyber-dependent) behavior. Methods and forms of prevention of teenagers' risky behavior in the Global Network are analyzed as well.

Keywords: Adaptationcyber-dependencerisky behavioradolescentsprevention

Introduction

The problems of risk and risky behavior increasingly attract attention of scientists from various fields and become the subject of modern scientific research. The issues of risky behavior genesis, the system of factors determining its beginning, and the features of these patterns of personal behavior manifestation have been profoundly studied in the works of such scientists as Breakwell (2007), Fischhoff (1978), Slovic (1978), Lichtenstein (1978), Read (1978), Combs (1978), Trimpop (1994), Bunas (2013), Boldakova (2015), Bocharova (2011), Bykov (2006), Vorobiev (2000), Ilyin (2012), Puzyrevich (2010), Ribakova & Biktagirova (2015), Shumakova et al. (2011).

However, in Russian social pedagogy and psychology there is not enough experimental research on the problem of prevention of teenagers' risky behavior in the Global Internet. According to the statistical data of the All-Russian Center for 2016, it is known that the number of adolescents using the Internet every day is steadily growing (since 2006, this indicator has increased from 5% to 53%). At the same time, Astakhov (2017), the ex-commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation for the Rights of the Child, notes that: “Often children take everything they see on TV and on the Internet, at face value. Due to their age, lack of life experience and knowledge in the field of media literacy, they are not always able to recognize manipulative techniques used in advertising and other information resources; they do not analyze the degree of information reliability and the authenticity of its sources. We want children to become real citizens of the country – people who can analyze and critically treat information products. They need to know what dangers are lurking on the net and how to avoid them”. The objective of this study is to justify the socio-pedagogical conditions for the prevention of adolescents’ risky behavior in the Global Internet.

Problem Statement

The urgency of the research of adolescents’ risky behavior is due to the significant impact of risks on the life and health of younger generation. It can be stated that the negative impact of Internet sites has increased and it provokes adolescents’ risky behavior, and often leads to dangerous critical life situations.

According to the State Statistics Committee of Russia, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, in Russia there are about 8-10 million Internet users under the age of 14 (Internet and children, 2017). Undoubtedly, with the development of ICT, due to information openness, the global Internet helps adolescents meet the needs, namely: to gain new knowledge and necessary information, to expand the circle of contacts, to increase self-esteem.

Paying tribute to the positive aspects of informatization, let us note some negative aspects of this phenomenon.

The modern level of computerization allows everyone to have access to the Internet, create their own Internet resources (sites, chats, forums, blogs, etc.) perhaps without special knowledge in the field of programming, and at the same time it is often free. Thus, rapid development and uncontrolled use of the achievements of humankind in the information and technological sphere for criminal purposes is a serious threat to the younger generation and the country. The “death groups” organized online are on the rise and they encourage adolescents to participate in dangerous and risky “survival games” and “extinction games”. Today there are thousands of sites that promote self-harm and violence against others, advertise attractive diets and extreme weight-control measures. Cyber-terror (trolling), cyber-fraud, porn sites, gambling sites, sites with violence scenes, illegal collection of personal data and their distribution in the public domain, sites popularizing suicides are among the negative influences that provoke adolescents’ risky behavior patterns. According to the British psychologist and neuroscientist Sigman (2017), social networks on the Internet can harm health due to reducing communication with real people. The scientist claims that social networks negatively affect the immune system of the developing organism, the hormonal balance, the work of arteries, and especially the processes of thinking. In the long term, this increases the risk of the emergence and development of various diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and dementia.

International experts from the United States of America, Europe and Russia (Internet and children, 2017) have come to the conclusion that there are insufficient preventive measures aimed at the debarment of technological threats and risks that have a negative impact on the adolescent's personality.

Research Questions

Theoretical analysis of issues focused on the understanding of nature of risk allows us to assert that the concept of “risk” is multidimensional and multifaceted. It includes a sufficiently large number of characteristics.

For example, Fischhof (1978) proposes the following risk characteristics: voluntariness, immediacy of the effect, knowledge of risk, control, novelty, chronic - catastrophic risk, general fear, consequences, preventive control, uncontrollability, scale, and threat to future generations, indirectness, fairness of risks and benefits, global catastrophism, unobservability, dynamics of a risk level, ease of decline.

An American economist Knight (2003), one of the founders of the theory of risk, shared the concepts of “uncertainty” and “risk”, emphasizing as a difference that risk is a measurable uncertainty, and its degree and event probability can be quantified. Actually, uncertainty in this sense implies the impossibility of measurement.

One of the widely studied by foreign psychologists personality characteristics associated with a risk appetite is sensation seeking. This characteristic was proposed and described by Zuckerman (2006). The scientist determines sensation seeking as a desire for new, exciting facts, to achieve peak levels of stimulation and excitement. According to Zuckerman (1971), the search for sensations is a multi-faceted personality trait determined by biological factors and includes elements such as the perception of boredom, adventurism, search for new experience, novelty and need for dangers. Zuckerman's research is enriched by Lisovsky (2000), who believes that one of the human’s features characterizing person's readiness for risk is adventurism. Adolescents take risks adventurously because of incompetence, disregard for realistic assessments and forecasts, ignoring the specificity of a real situation, the correlation of forces. At the same time, the author claims that the most common types of risky behavior of adolescents are adventurism, fidelity and bravado.

The essence of risk is denoted by Schwartz (1999) as “risk-novelty” – “independence of individual thoughts and feelings, openness to new experiences and the desire to live life full of events”. Important features of the definition presented are independence, openness to new experiences. Taking into account that “values control the choice or evaluation of people's behavior or events” and considering the psychological characteristics of adolescence, the priority of risky (“independent”) behavior of adolescents and youth becomes evident.

Having studied the concepts of different authors, we consider risky behavior as a specific pattern of behavior that is likely to lead to loss of health and social well-being, to infection, mental or physical dependence (including virtual addiction), to violence, suicidal behavior.

Risky behavior of adolescents is an activity aimed at teenagers’ experimenting with their own abilities and transforming their attitude towards the value of life. A variant of risky behavior is victim behavior ; it is a kind of behavior that results in the increased possibility for a person to become a victim (crimes, circumstances or accidents).

An adult person has core values and normative guidelines, has the skills of predictive and rational thinking to adequately assess their capabilities and minimize risky behavior. Most adolescents lack a clear and stable view of life. In addition, they are characterized by reactions of emancipation, grouping with peers, and sometimes risky hobbies, that determine the search character of behavior and “tests of adult life”.

Consequently, one of the most striking manifestations of adolescence is the desire for risky behavior. Adolescent behavior can be constructive and unconstructive.

Constructive risky behavior of adolescents is a kind of activity aimed at self-understanding and self-improvement of adolescents and making them aware of the value of life (extreme sports, serve in the army in flashpoint area, work in the Ministry of Emergency Situations).

Nonconstructive risky behavior is a kind of activity aimed at destroying the objects of the surrounding world or adolescents’ self-destruction; it causes the lack of conscious attitude to the value of life (drugs, alcohol, promiscuous sexual relations, unsafe sex, offenses of various kinds, Internet addiction, etc.).

An American scientist Young (2000) distinguishes five main types of Internet addiction:

1) computer addiction: obsessive addiction to working with a computer (games, programming or other activities);2) internet compulsions: compulsive search for information in remote databases;3) information overload: pathological addiction to Internet-mediated gambling, online auctions or electronic purchases;

4) cyber-sexual addiction: dependence on “cybersex” from visiting pornographic sites on the Internet, discussing sexual topics in chats or closed groups "for adults";5) cyber-relational addiction: dependence on communication in social networks, forums, chats, group games and teleconferences, that can eventually lead to the replacement of existing in real life family members and friends for virtual ones.

In this paper, we consider cyber-communicative dependency as the dependence of an individual on communication in the Global Internet.

As researchers we are interested in the problem of non-constructive risky (cyber-informational dependence) behavior of adolescents. They are, due to excessive credulity, imprudence, increased temper, irritability and a tendency to adventures, unrestrained and risky acts, become victimized personalities (victims of the Internet negative influence). Kostyunina, Kalatskaya & Drozdikova-Zaripova (2015) believe that it is the victim's behavior in the adolescent's personality that can be imprudent, risky, frivolous, sometimes provocative, therefore dangerous to an adolescent him or herself and others, which increases the possibility of encroachment on their own life and personal well-being, as well as well-being of others.

We have investigated the risks of cyber socialization that can be divided into two large groups: psychological risks and social risks. One cannot but agree with the scientists Dick (2008), Burova (Loskutova, 2000), Semenov (2017), and others. who refer the following aspects to the psychological group of risks: information overload and psycho-emotional stress, violation of the level of self-awareness, threats of manipulative nature (in “cyber session” teenagers fix their attention on the monitor screen, so this moment is the most favorable for suggestion and manipulation of their consciousness). The immeasurable spending time on the Internet can lead to social autism; adolescents may have the illusion of constant engagement, lack of psychological barriers to virtual communication. In science, a number of specific features of virtual communication are emphasized: anonymity; a peculiar flow of interpersonal perception; voluntariness and desirability of contacts; difficulty of the emotional component; tendency to atypical, non-normative risky behavior. Because of their complete freedom, adolescents often display atypical behavior in the real world, and this behavior is often risky, victimized and abnormal.

To social risks of virtual socialization, scientists and the paper authors refer: violation of the basic functions of socialization. The main functions include ensuring continuity in development, transmission of culture from generation to generation, beginning of aggressive behavior and involvement in various criminal groups or extremist movements, etc. Note that each of the above mentioned risks can lead to destructive forms of social activity. Moreover, deviant behavior, caused precisely because of the negative factors of cybersocialization, can appear both in the real and virtual worlds.

Undoubtedly, psychologists and social educators are primarily interested in determining the factors that affect specific manifestations of risk and forms of risky behavior on the Internet, and the development of effective preventive interventions to avoid nonconstructive use of the Internet. This statement specifies the purpose of our study.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to theoretically substantiate and experimentally test the educational conditions for the prevention of adolescents’ risky behavior in the Global Internet. The educational conditions we study are as follows:

1) combining the efforts of the state and institutions (legal, medical, psychological and pedagogical) aimed at preventing adolescents’ risky behavior in the Global Internet;

2) timely diagnostics to identify the level of risk readiness, risky (victim) behavior, the level of Internet addiction (cyber-informational dependence), factors and causes of such behavior in adolescents.

3) approbation of preventive programs in institutions, including effective methods and forms of prevention, such as: universal education of children and parents about safe and constructive use of the Internet, training, case studies, role-playing games, "psycho-pedagogical cinema hall", arrangement of meetings with lawyers and doctors, etc.

Let us describe these conditions in more detail.

1. Ensuring children the information security by the state, protecting their physical, mental and moral development in all audiovisual media services and electronic media. It is the requirement of international law (Recommendation of the European Parliament and the European Union Council on the protection of minors and human dignity on the Internet accepted on 20.12.2006). According to the Russian legislation, children's information security is a state of children's security, with no risk associated with inflicting damage to their health, physical, mental, spiritual or moral development, including information distributed on the Internet (Federal Law No. 436-FZ 29.12.2010).

Protection of adolescents and young people from the Internet negative influence is one of the most important and urgent problems of the state. To protect adolescents and young people from destructive information traumatizing their psyche, as well as from information that can develop risky behavior among adolescents, Russia adopted Federal Law No. 139-FZ of July 28, 2012 “Protecting children from information that causes harm to their health and development” and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation on the issue of restricting access to illegal information on the Internet.

Presidential Decree No. 761 of June 1, 2012, “National Strategy of Action for Children for 2012-2017” outlines “Measures to ensure the information security of childhood: “creation and implementation of programs for teaching children and adolescents the rules of safe behavior on the Internet, preventing Internet addiction, preventing risks of involvement in illegal activities, pornography, participation in flash mobs”. The President of the Russian Federation, Putin (2017), noted the importance and urgency of measures to prevent deviant behavior. He stated in the message of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation: “We must admit, dear friends, the influence of the school on the development of children and adolescents has weakened in recent years. It has strong competitors: the Internet, electronic media“.

Administration of social networks is working on blocking prohibited material. Portals have developed a feedback system where it is possible to “complain” to a publication with undesirable content and assign a category of “spam”, “insult”, “adult material”, “drug propaganda”, “child pornography”, “violence / extremism” (feedback system in the social network “Vkontakte”). However, these measures are not enough. It is necessary to join forces of all state institutions and departments aimed at the prevention of adolescents’ risky behavior in the Global Internet.

2. Psychological and pedagogical diagnostics (from Greek diagnostikos - capable of recognizing) as a procedure for setting up a psychological-pedagogical diagnosis.

Psychological and pedagogical diagnosis is the conclusion about the adolescents ’personality traits manifestations which are supposed to be influenced in the course of psychological and pedagogical work.

During the study, the following diagnostic tools were used:

1) test “Readiness for Risk ” (RSK) by Schubert (2014), is aimed at identifying an assessment of person’s courage, willingness to take risks;

2) test “Scale of sensation seeking” by Zuckerman (2006), is aimed at studying the level of needs for sensations of various kinds in relation to adolescents and adults;

3) questionnaire “Impulsivity – 7” by Eysenck, a short modified version of Dolnykova and Kornilova (1995);

4) questionnaire to identify the level of cyber-communication dependence by Toncheva (2012). The questionnaire consists of 20 questions, compiled on the basis of features of cyber-communication dependence, which are listed on All Social Networking Sites (Internet and children, 2017), the test “Dependence on Facebook” by Dr. Cecile Shu Andreassen (Norway) (Internet and children, 2017).

Our diagnosis contains conclusions about the causes that led to risky behavior; they are the following:

A) biological, in particular: characteristics of the nervous system, namely its weakness, stiffness and reduced response flexibility in response to changing environmental characteristics, along with other adverse conditions affect the formation of risky (dependent behavior), etc.;

B) social: non-constructive use of the Internet, which can lead to loss of health and well-being, conflicts and violence in the family, misunderstanding of parents, etc.;

C) individually - psychological: seeking thrills because of boring, everyday life (adolescents need higher doses and risks to experience the same emotions as their healthy peers.) In situations of limiting the activity of adolescents, on the contrary, they may provoke a strong protest and the desire to act in spite somebody, violating norms and rules, often to the detriment of themselves). Also neuroticism and impulsivity, a tendency to adventure and recklessness, curiosity, etc. should be pointed out.

Risky behavior inhibitors were studied by the authors. They are risk aversion and the desire for safe use of the Internet, correct social education and conflict-free communication in the family, a healthy lifestyle of parents and teaching it children, a teenager's deep awareness of the values of life and health, confidence in adolescents’ own strength, effective work of psychological and pedagogical centers and educational institutions to prevent the negative impact of the Internet.

3. To prevent risky behavior of adolescents, the authors of the article developed a single integrated preventive program “We are for the constructive use of the Internet!” involving the practical developments of Drozdikova-Zaripova, Valeeva & Shakurova (2012).

The purpose of the program is to ensure the information security of under-age students and pupils by educating skills of responsible and safe behavior in the modern information and telecommunication environment.

The tasks are:

1) informing students about types of information on the Internet that can cause harm to health, prohibited or restricted for distribution on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as for legal measures of responsibility;

2) informing students about the methods of illegal distribution of banned information in information and telecommunication networks, especially in the Internet and mobile (cellular) communication (including messaging of illegal content);

3) teaching children and adolescents the rules of responsible and safe use of Internet and mobile communication services, including ways to protect themselves from illegal and other socially dangerous encroachments in the Global Internet, for example, from such ways of destructive impact on the adolescent psyche as cyberbullying (abuse of children in a virtual environment) and bullycide (bringing to a suicide by psychological violence);

4) prevention of the formation of Internet addiction and game addiction (ludomania, gambling) with students;

5) prevention of students committing offenses using information and telecommunication technologies;

6) formation of the subject position of an adolescent in relation to their own life and future, development of emotional intelligence, the increase of neuropsychological resistance to the negative impact of the Internet.

The implementation of the program lasted for one year (once a week during 60 - 80 minutes) with teenagers and their parents in the form of workshops and training sessions. Information sessions said about negative influences and influences on personality in the Global Internet (information overload, propaganda of violence and aggression, misinformation, manipulation of consciousness and behavior, involvement in “death groups”, popularization of foul language, substitution of real “live communication” for virtual ones, etc.). Various methods of manipulative influence (“labeling”, repetition of information, commercials for weight loss for 1 week, etc.) were identified and studied on real examples from the Network with the adolescents. Such forms of cyberbullying as flaming, constant debilitating attacks, slander, imposture, luring confidential information, cyberbullying were discussed. Preventive measures that can stop spread of cyberbullying, as well as measures to combat cyberbullying have been studied. Also the following symptoms of cyber-information dependence that include obsessive desire to visit the network were analyzed: eating in front of the monitor, loss of time sense on-line; more frequent on-line communication than communication during a personal meeting; complaints from parents about long-time surfing the Internet by their children; disregard of family and academic duties, social life, scientific activity or state of health because of the immersion in the Internet. Next symptoms are Internet access in order to escape problems or drown out feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety or depression; formation of fatigue, irritancy, spirits decline when finishing surfing the Internet and an irresistible desire to return to the computer; denial of the existence of cyber-informational dependence. In working with teenagers, we used the following methods: discussions, psychocorrectional exercises, role games, projective techniques, psychological tasks, pantomimes, drawing tests. The subject of discussion at the classes was thought processes, emotions, moods. Information for some classes is presented in the monograph of one of the authors (Kostyunina, 2014).

Research Methods

To solve the problems the following methods were used:

1) theoretical: the study and analysis of pedagogical, psychological literature on the problem of research, comparison, classification, generalization methods.

2) empirical: observation, questioning, survey, testing, educational experiment. In addition, the study used praximetric methods, including content analysis, based on the results of mini-essays that reveal the respondents' social perceptions of the risk.

3) methods of data processing (quantitative and qualitative analysis). The results of the empirical study were processed using mathematical and statistical methods (Student's t-test, correlation and factor analysis); interpretative methods.

Findings

The study involved 170 people (14-15 year- old respondents, 99 girls, 71 boys). The study was conducted on the basis of the MBOU “Secondary general Tatar-Russian school № 23 with in-depth study of individual subjects”.

The following components of risky – cyber-communicative-dependent behavior of adolescents were identified:

1.”Readiness for risk” – a high risk appetite and courage;

2. “Uncontrolled drive to the new” – a high need for feelings, provocation to participate in risky activities and adventures;

3.”Impulsiveness” – a high inclination to act on the first impulse, under the influence of emotions or circumstances. Impulsive people do not think about their actions, but immediately react to them, then often repenting in their actions. Most likely, teenagers’ impulsivity is a consequence of heightened emotional excitability.

4. “The presence of cyber-communication dependence” – the average and high tendency of cyber-communication dependence, that is, when social networks influence the life of the adolescent and cause problems in life.

At the detecting stage of the experiment according to the method “Readiness for risk” (RSK) by Schubert, it was revealed that 24.7% (42 people) of adolescents are excessively cautious, are not ready to take risks; 51.1% (87 people) are of moderate caution; while 24.1% (41 people) have a high risk tolerance and courage, namely teenagers have such characteristics as independence, a tendency to dominate, impulsiveness, the desire to achieve success, independence. A person is ready to take non-standard (risky) decisions, is not afraid to lose existing material (spiritual) benefits for the sake of something more.

According to Zuckerman's “Scale of sensations seeking”, it was found out that 32.3% (55 people) of respondents have a low level of need for sensations and it indicates prudence and caution in obtaining new impressions of life activity. 42.9% (73 people) have an average indicator that shows the ability to control their needs and some judiciousness in the necessary moments of life. At the same time, 24.7% (42 people) have a high level of need for sensations that indicates the presence of uncontrolled addiction, provocation of the respondents to participate in risky advances and activities.

According to the questionnaire “Impulsivity – 7” (Eysenck) with a maximum score of 11, 47 respondents were identified that is 27.6%. This suggests that these teenagers are characterized by emotional imbalance, low self-control, and increased inclination to aggressive outbreaks. They often take actions without any purpose or intention, they are more likely to be guided by their spontaneous desires or whims that can have severe consequences, and may be among the victim personalities of the Global Internet.

The results of the questionnaire on the detection of the level of cyber-communication dependence (Toncheva, 2012) are as follows: a low level of cyber-communicative dependence is a characteristic of 128 adolescents (75.2%), an average level was detected with 31 adolescents (18.2), a high level of cyber-communicative dependence was detected with 11 people (6.4%). Let us dwell on some indicators. 61.7% of adolescents are often online continuously for more than 2 hours a day, 22.3% - very often, 10% - always (17 people). About a third part of the respondents (36.2%) have an irresistible desire to use Social network: always 8.8%, very often 14.7%, and often 12.7%. About 15.8% of adolescents are often annoyed when there is no opportunity to visit their social networking page. 34% of adolescents say that surfing social networks always improves mood. About 20% of the interviewed adolescents use the social network very often to avoid personal problems. About 10% of the interviewed teens in the company with friends discuss social networking news. 6.4% of the interviewed adolescents always add random people to the list of “friends”. Quite a large percentage of respondents (30%) tried to reduce the time spent in the social network, but without any success.

According to the diagnostic results, a “risk group” was identified - 47 (2 training groups), which, according to the results of 4 methods, have high indicators. These teenagers and their parents conducted a purposeful formative work. Within the framework of a single comprehensive program “We are for the constructive use of the Internet!” we conducted informational general education and trainings.

After forming events, there were significant changes in the measured indicators using the method “Risk Preparedness” (RSK) of Schubert, it was revealed that the high level dropped from 24.1% (41 people) to 11.2% (19 people) (changes by 12, 9%), the average level also decreased from 51.1% (87 people) to 38.2% (65 people) (changes of 12.9%), the low level increased significantly from 24.7% (42 people) up to 50.6% (86 people) (changes - 25.9%). The adolescents of the experimental group began to appreciate their own safety in the Internet and tried not to be influenced by someone - 77.65% (132 people).

At the control stage, according to Zuckerman's “Search Scale”, the following changes were detected: the high level significantly decreased from 24.7% (42 people) to 8.8% (15 people) (changes of 15.9%), The average level did not significantly decrease from 42.9% (73 people) to 44.7% (76 people) (a change of 1.8%), the low level increased from 32.3% (55 people) to 46.5 % (79 people) (changes of 14.2%). These indicators show the development of students' discretion and the skills of rational thinking.

The difference in the results of the questionnaire “Impulsivity – 7” (Eysenck) at the control stage is 15.2%. That is, with a maximum score of 11, it was revealed 12.4% (21 people) of the previously announced 27.6% (which was 47 respondents). Thus, the formative activities contributed to reducing the number of adolescents who may be among the victim of the Global Internet.

At the end of the formative experiment, the results of the questionnaire for detecting the level of cyber-communication dependence (Toncheva, 2012) are not significant for all levels and have the following values: high level of cyber-communication dependence decreased from 6.4% (11 people) to 5.3% ( 9 people) (a change by 1.1%), the average level dropped from 18.2% (31 people) to 16.5% (28 people) (a change by 1.7%), the low level rose from 75.2 % (128 people) to 78.2% (133 people) (changes by 3%).There are positive changes for some indicators: out of 17 (10%) teenagers who are always online continuously for more than 2 hours a day, at the end of the experiment there were 5 people (2.9%), changes by 7.1% . the respondents who have an irresistible desire to use the social network: always - from 8.8% dropped to 5.3% (9 people) changes by 3.5%, very often - from 14.7% decreased by half to 7.6% (13 people) changes by 7.1%; Often - from 12.7% dropped to 0. The same teenagers noted that they are no longer irritated when there is no opportunity to visit the “page” in the social network and try to shorten the time spending in the social network if possible.

After conducting the formative experiment on Student's t-criterion, we obtained the following data:

The differences between the average values of the levels according to the Schubert’s “Readiness for Risk” (RSK) method in the experimental group before and after the experiment are reliable, since temp>tcr (temp = 2,1) at significance level p ≤ 0,01, p ≤ 0 , 05;

The differences between the average values of the levels in the “Scale of sensation seeking” method by Zuckerman in the experimental group before and after the experiment are reliable, since temp>tcr (temp = 4.2) at the significance level p ≤ 0.01, p ≤ 0.05;

The differences between the average values of the levels in the questionnaire “Impulsivity – 7” (S. Eysenck) in the experimental group before and after the experiment are significant, as temp>tcr (temp= 6.3) at significance level p ≤ 0.01, p ≤ 0.05;

The differences between the average values of the levels according to the questionnaire to identify the level of cyber-communication dependence by Toncheva in the experimental group before and after the experiment are not reliable, since temp>tcr(temp = -0.3) outside the significance zone p ≤ 0 , 01, p ≤ 0.05.

In addition to quantitative indicators, qualitative changes in the behavior of adolescents should be mentioned. The participants of the program became more critical of messages and other information distributed on the Internet. They actively participated in discussions and training and tried to analyze the reliability of information and the authenticity of its sources, participated together with parents in various activities and tried to spend less time in front of the computer.

Conclusion

After the performed research, the following conclusions were made:

1. Problems of risky behavior in adolescents are becoming more evident due to the growing number of Internet users in Russia and the world;

2. Because of the increasing computerization and “Internetization” of Russian society, this problem can be identified as a problem of the pathological use of the Internet;

3. The necessary measures should be the integration of the efforts of the state and institutions (legal, medical, psychological and pedagogical) aimed at preventing adolescents’ risky behavior in the Global Internet;

4. The program “We are for the constructive use of the Internet!” contains effective forms and methods to prevent adolescents’ risky behavior in the Global Internet; it can be used by teachers, psychologists, social workers in professional activities to prevent risky (victimized) addictive behavior of adolescents.

However, during the implementation of the program we were not able to completely solve a number of problems, such as:

1. Reorient the entire group of respondents to constructive use of the Internet, since, undoubtedly, cyber-addiction is a diagnosis, and requires clinical treatment and voluntary teenager’s consultation with a psychotherapist (clinical psychologist).

2. In addition to training sessions, it is necessary to conduct psychological counseling sessions aimed at self-regulation training and coping with stressful situations, educating strong-willed qualities, increasing self-esteem.

3. The program for the prevention of risky behavior of adolescents was realized in an educational institution for one year, during their free time. We believe that this period is not enough. At the same time, it is necessary to work purposefully with parents and teachers of a general educational institution. Parents need to shape the child's new life hobbies (sports, etc.)

4. The researchers were not able to examine the medical records of the respondents, since this information is confidential.

Acknowledgements

The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University.

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31 August 2017

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Future Academy

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29

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Teacher, teacher training, teaching skills, teaching techniques

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Kostyunina, N. Y., & Korneva, I. G. (2017). Prevention Of Adolescents’ Risky Behavior In The Global Network. In R. Valeeva (Ed.), Teacher Education - IFTE 2017, vol 29. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 426-438). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.08.02.50