Awareness towards cybercrime among secondary school students: the role of gender and school management

Purpose The study aims to determine the cybercrime awareness among secondary school students with reference to their gender and school management type. Design/methodology/approach For the purpose, a sample of 100 students from secondary schools situated in Lucknow city, state of Uttar Pradesh, India was selected. To obtain initial data from the respondents and to determine the cybercrime awareness categories a five-point Likert type cybercrime awareness rating scale exclusively constructed to fulfil the purpose of this study was used to determine the cybercrime awareness in five categories viz; excellent, high, above average, average, below average and low cybercrime awareness. Further, “t” test was used to analyse the difference between the means of groups. Findings Results revealed that gender (male and female) and type of school management (government and self-finance) are not significant predictors of cybercrime awareness among secondary school students. Research limitations/implications This study is limited to the government and self-finance English medium schools of Lucknow city, state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Practical implications Policymakers, various societies involved in investigating cyber behavior/child computer interaction/safer communities, etc. should consider that school management is not a predictor of cybercrime along with gender and can look for other possible visible and latent factors affecting cybercrime awareness among students while formulating a policy or designing a course/prevention program for secondary school students. Social implications School administration should consider the existing gender and school management roles of the present scenario to make effective policies for the students and providing them effective cybercrime prevention programs and activities. Also, parents can adequately understand the role of school management type and gender of their belongings to understand their cybercrime awareness and take necessary measures accordingly. Originality/value The paper is focused on the cybercrime awareness of secondary school students and how their gender and school management type affects their cybercrime awareness. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is first of its kind which investigates the role of school management in cybercrime awareness of the students. As the education sector is depending more and more on the cyber world, this paper is of the great significance for the safety of education sector, organizations and communities involved in making the policies and designing the curriculum to avoid students being a victim of cybercrime and to make education sector a safer community.