Awareness Of Cybercrime Risks And Its Relationship To Attitude Toward The Internet Use Among University Students

Abstract

The current study aimed at identifying the level of awareness of cybercrime risks and the attitude reality toward the Internet among Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University students and the relationship between them. The study used a descriptive survey method. A questionnaire was prepared to measure awareness of the cybercrime risks, and a scale of attitude toward the Internet. They were applied to a sample of (288) in the Faculties of Education and Applied Studies at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University; selected in a stratified random method. The study found out a high level of awareness of the cybercrime risks and the attitude toward the Internet among students. It also found out a weak direct correlation between the attitude toward the Internet in its overall score with awareness of the cybercrime risks in its overall score and its various dimensions. In addition, the results indicated that there were no differences in the score of awareness of the cybercrime risks due to the gender variable, while differences were found out between the duration of Internet use in favor of the most used, except for the first dimension (Electronic Crimes against Persons). There were differences in the attitude toward using the Internet due to the gender variable in favor of females, while there were no differences for the variable of attitude toward the Internet in its various dimensions (psychomotor and affective) and its total score according to the variable of duration of Internet use, except for the cognitive dimension. The current study recommended the necessity of spreading awareness of the cybercrime risks and targeting it in university courses.