Exploring adolescents’ vulnerability and resilience to online risks in Trinidad and Tobago

ABSTRACT This study explored adolescents’ vulnerability and resilience to online risks in Trinidad and Tobago. Using nine focus groups consisting of fifty-one high school students, semi structured interviews were conducted to explore their experiences online and the strategies used to ensure their safety. The results indicate that adolescents experienced certain types of online risks and engaged in strategies and actions which they believe allowed them to securely navigate the internet and social networking platforms. Although they acknowledged that there exists a multiplicity of online risks, experiences of these risks were subject to their own behaviours. While adolescents did not recall how they learned their risk management strategies, such was demonstrative of their resilience and agency. Impact Summary Prior State of Knowledge: Adolescents, as digital natives experience a multiplicity of risks while traversing cyberspace. These risks are categorized as content-related, contact-related and conduct related. Adolescents employ risk mitigation strategies to reduce their online vulnerabilities. Novel Contributions: The unique vulnerabilities, and resilience strategies employed by adolescents in Trinidad and Tobago while online are reliant on familiarity of risks and involve an amalgam of self-reported personal responsibilities, self-regulatory behaviours, and parental regulatory measures. Practical Implications: Online risk mitigation by adolescents is dependent on personal or vicarious experiences of risk. The Secondary School’s Education Curriculum should therefore be geared towards expanding adolescents’ knowledge of probable online risks and mitigation strategies employed to successfully navigate these risks.