www.wvarmenia.am

Internet and

psychological

behavior of teens in

Armenia

Roman Harutyunyan, Child Protection

Expert

WV Armenia

www.wvarmenia.am

Overview

• Internet accessibility in Armenia

• Keep Children Safe on Line Project

• Psychological behavior of teens

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Internet accessibility in Armenia

Rapid spreading of Internet technologies in Armenia during

the part 3 years (Internet cafes available in each

neighbourhood, access to mobile, dial-up, wireless and

other types of Internet has become more affordable).

Since 2008 the monopoly power of internet provider was

eliminated

4 new providers entered the market between 2008-2011.

The number of internet users jumped drastically almost 10

times rating Armenia as a leader among CIS countries by

level of Internet accessibility

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Country Share of Internet users

1. Armenia 47.1%

2. Azerbaijan 44.1%

3. Belarus 46.3%

4. Russia 43.0%

5. Kyrgyzstan 39.3%,

6. Kazakhstan 34.1%,

7. Ukraine 33.9%

8. Moldova 30.9%

9. Uzbekistan 26.8%

10. Tajikistan 9.2%

11. Turkmenistan 1.6%

Internet users as share to total population

Source: The study

of international

organization

Internet World Stats

for 2011

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Source: The Wold Bank, www.data.worldbank.org

In Armenia, at the end of 2011, users of social network Facebook were 242,140.

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Purpose: To increase children’s awareness on how to

safely use the Internet, mobile phones and other modern

ICTs;

To educate children about their rights to privacy

To increase parents and teachers awareness about online

safety;

To provide all three groups with information

about what, how and where to report an

incident if exposed to any illegal activity

online.

Keep children safe on line project

www.wvarmenia.am

Main Activities

ToT and peers to peers trainings among children on

Internet safety, on-line communication and benefits of

informed usage of ICTs.

Awareness workshops with teachers and parents

Establishment of an on-line training for children in

education portal www.armedu.am

Creation of a child friendly website on on-line safety

issues www.safeinternet.am

Establishment of the proper complains mechanism via

hot-line: 08 006 1111 and on-line reporting system

http://www.safeinternet.am/voting.aspx

Improve cyber-crime legislation

peers

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Psychological behavior of teens

During the trainings the teachers and parents shared their

concerns on changed behaviour and perception of

teenagers and detected deepening discord between adult

and young generation. The psychological changes they

noticed in their children are

Passion and attraction to internet that brings to Internet

dependency;

Hidden interest to information on drugs use, abuse,

pornography, paedophilia and other similar aspects;

Signs of fear, aggression and other emotional stresses;

Sense of estrangement from the real world.

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Passion and attraction to internet that

brings to Internet dependency

• Hours spent in internet - both in front of

computer or via cell phones

• No communication with friends and relatives

• Role reversal with teaching computer

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Hidden interest to information on drugs use,

abuse, pornography, paedophilia and other

similar aspects

• Different advertisements and flashing invitations

in the Websites and social nets

• Major danger – teens can become targets of

pedophiles

• The anonymity of some social networking sites

makes it easy for unscrupulous people to target

young teens and engage them in harmful

conversations.

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Signs of fear, aggression and other

emotional stresses

• Many potential problems with social networking sites and

the teenagers that use them. – Sites used by Armenian

young generation- Odnoklasniki and Facebook

• Both are open and to all, which means that the teen

could be exposed to harassment, bullying or sexual

advances.

• It's rare for harassment to spill over into real-world

conflicts, but it can still be a cause of emotional distress

for teens.

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Sense of estrangement from the real

world

• Major amounts of time spent playing video

games, often suffused with violence,

appear to have the same negative effects

as too much time watching TV

• Many studies show that violent internet

information increase aggression and

hostility

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Do we need an on-line corner for

psychologist?

• We have opened a voting poll

http://www.safeinternet.am/voting.aspx

in our website

• Within a short period of time we received

125 responses with 116 or 93% voting for

the possibility

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Your support ad experience is

needed!!

• At what extend we are ready to prevent and

protect our children to appear in these situations?

and

• How skilled we are to support and empower them

to get over the difficulties in case they face them?

• These are the questions we are trying to find

responses in the frame of our project and also

are looking for experiences of other partners and

yours….

Thanks