Efficacy of a multi-risk internet prevention program: Safety.net

Abstract

There are increasingly more prevention and intervention programs concerning internet risks. However, most of them do not consider the breadth of the existing risks of both the relational and dysfunctional use of technology. The main objective of this study was to confirm the effectiveness indicators of the multi-risk internet prevention program (Safety.net). This program, consisting of 16 sessions (1 hour/session), promotes general skills for adequate internet use and prevents eight risks: cyberbullying, sexting, online grooming, cyber dating abuse, problematic internet use, nomophobia, internet gaming disorder, and online gambling. It has a networked instructional design to remember the contents already addressed as as the program progresses. The sample comprised 726 adolescents (54% girls) between 11-14 years (M = 12.11, SD = 0.89). For its evaluation, a pre/post-test repeated-measures design was used with an intervention group (n = 450) and a control group (n = 276). The intervention group showed significant improvements compared to the control group in peer cybervictimization, cyber dating victimization, sexual solicitation/interaction with adults, problematic internet use, and nomophobia. These results suggest that the Safety.net program effectively prevents the increase of most internet risks assessed through a reduced number of sessions. This is a potential psychoeducational tool to be integrated into tutorial action plans.