Fear of On-line Victimization Among Undergraduate Students: A Comparative Study of Two Selected Urban Universities

Abstract

The study assessed the prevalence and patterns of fear of on-line victimization among students using a sample of 641 students enrolled in undergraduate studies in two urban public universities in North Western and South Eastern Nigeria, i.e, Bayero University, Kano and University of Nigeria, Nsukka respectively. Specifically, the study sought to answer the questions: How prevalent is the fear of on-line victimization among undergraduate students? What are the patterns of the fear of on-line victimization among undergraduate students? Data from the two universities were compared. The results indicate that there is a high prevalence of fear of online victimization among undergraduates in both universities. Among the five kinds of fears benchmarked, fear of fraudulent mails was the most expressed fear and it was more prevalent in the North West sample than in the South East sample. The study concluded that the fear of online victimization may impact negatively on the cashless Nigeria being proposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, since online banking is one of its major components. Hence, sensitization on proper ways of utilizing ICT coupled with devising preventing strategies for self-protection while using on-line resources are recommended.