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School Internet use, youth and risk: a social‐cultural study of the relation between staff views of online dangers and students' ages in UK schools
Author(s) -
Hope Andrew
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/01411920600569305
Subject(s) - the internet , liminality , sociology , panacea (medicine) , pornography , perspective (graphical) , public relations , psychology , pedagogy , internet privacy , political science , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , artificial intelligence , world wide web , computer science , anthropology , psychoanalysis
Internet access has recently been introduced into over 30,000 schools in the UK. While web provision has been heralded by some as an educational panacea, it is also recognised that there are dangers inherent in school Internet use. Adopting the cultural risk perspective, drawing upon a social‐cultural analysis of Internet regulation and utilising the concepts of liminality and ‘otherness’, this article explores staff Internet risk perspectives. While staff expressed concern about online pornography, hate‐sites, bomb/drug making websites, electronic communication, security issues and copyright violation, interpretations as to who was at risk varied with student age. Younger students' Internet activities were interpreted with reference to narratives of innocence, whilst the inappropriate online activities of youths were labelled as ‘dangerous’. In conclusion, it is argued that a distinction needs to be drawn between risks arising from liminality and those associated with ‘otherness’.