The impact of Internet-based specific activities on the perceptions of Internet addiction, quality of life, and excessive usage: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: Recent research has examined the context in which preference for specific online activities arises, leading researchers to suggest that excessive Internet users are engaged in specific activities rather than ‘generalized’ Internet use. The present study aimed to partially replicate and expand these findings by addressing four research questions regarding (i) participants' preferred online activities, (ii) possible expected changes in online behavior in light of hypothetical scenarios, (iii) perceived quality of life when access to Internet was not possible, and (iv) how participants with self-diagnosed Internet addiction relate to intensity and frequency of Internet use. Methods: A cross-sectional design was adopted using convenience and snowball sampling to recruit participants. A total of 1057 Internet users with ages ranging from 16 to 70 years (M age = 30 years, SD = 10.84) were recruited online via several English-speaking online forums. Results: Most participants indicated that their preferred activities were (i) accessing general information and news, (ii) social networking, and (iii) using e-mail and/or online chatting. Participants also reported that there would be a significant decrease of their Internet use if access to their preferred activities was restricted. The study also found that 51% of the total sample perceived themselves as being addicted to the Internet, while 14.1% reported that without the Internet their life would be improved. Conclusions: The context in which the Internet is used appears to determine the intensity and the lengths that individuals will go to use this tool. The implications of these findings are further discussed

Prevalence and predictors of unsolicited exposure to and involvement in online sexual activites among young Internet users in Lagos metropolis

oai:aps.journals.ac.za/oai:article/3The study draws empirical evidence from adolescents (aged 10 to 19 years) and young adults (20 to 24 years) who use the Internet in exploring the relationship between two sets of independent variables – background characteristics and context of Internet use and two sets of dependent variables – unsolicited exposure to online materials with sexual contents, and involvement in online sexual activities. The background characteristics explored in the study are age, sex, autonomy (whether living alone or with parents), access to funds and parent-child communication, while the Internet use context variables are place of access, all-night Internet use and intensity of use. The study reveals that close to half of the subjects had been involved in at least one online sexual activity with intensity and time of Internet use as the strongest predictors of involvement. doi: 10.11564/27-1-

Internet career fairs in Australian higher education

[Abstract]: Internet Career Fairs have become a feature of the Australian graduate employment recruitment market. Internet Career Fairs offer considerable benefits in terms of resources and marketing by employers. They also offer an additional form of access to employment information that is used by students to explore their graduate employment opportunities. With the advent of Web.2 technology and sophisticated platforms such as Second Life, there is far greater potential to expand the interactivity and appeal of internet Career Fairs. In context of a description of the broader use of internet technology used for the delivery of career development services in Australia and its universities, this briefly paper describes the first 3-dimensional internet Career Fair established on the Second Life platform by an Australian university Career Service

Policy reform, economic growth, and the digital divide - an econometric analysis

Rapid growth of Internet use in high-income economies, has raised the specter of a"digital divide"that will marginalize developing countries, because they can neither afford Internet access, nor use it effectively when it is available. Using a new cross-country data set, the authors investigate two proximate determinants of the digital divide: Internet intensity (Internet subscriptions per telephones mainline), and access to telecom services. Surprisingly, they find no gap in Internet intensity. When differences in urbanization, and competition policy are controlled for, low-income countries have intensities as high as those of industrial countries. While income does not seem to matter in this context, competition policy matters a great deal. Low-income countries with high World Bank ratings for competition policy, have significantly higher Internet intensities. The authors'findings on Internet intensity implies that the digital divide is not really new, but reflects a persistent gap in the availability of mainline telephones services. After identifying mobile telephones as a promising new platform for Internet access, they use panel data to study the determinants of mobile telephone diffusion during the past decade. Their results show that income explains part of the diffusion lag for poor countries, but they also highlight the critical role of policy. Developing countries whose policies promote economic growth, and private sector competition, have experienced much more rapid diffusion of mobile telephone services. Simulations based on the econometric results, suggest that feasible reforms could sharply narrow the digital divide during the next decade for many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The authors'review of the literature, also suggests that direct access promotion would yield substantial benefits for poor households, and that cost-effective intervention strategies are now available.ICT Policy and Strategies,Knowledge Economy,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Health Economics&Finance,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Legal incapacitation in media access interdictions and the internet

In this paper I first situate the general norm in the Council of Europe countries on access to the internet by actors in the media in the context of key concerns related to the internet as a medium according to UNESCO’s Internet Study. Following on I provide analysis of media access to public events and places within the scope for protection according to recent sources from the Council of Europe’s political decision-making organs and the case-law of Human Rights Court. Further I delineate the scope for protection to digital free expression by a comparison of cases in the Netherlands on the internet as a means of access vis-à-vis a means of publication on social media and blogs. On this theme I focus on the particular motivations for protection of a wide-range of behavior related to the internet and specifics thereof in the parliamentary history of the Dutch law. Suggested by their wording, these political and judicial decisions limit the European Court’s general invocation of journalisms ethics when such is related to certain ‘ increased protections ’ to journalists. Some cases have - as instances of decisional law - given journalists/press the ‘ benefit of the doubt ’. I delineate how the Court has found the rights to seek, impart and receive up until recently, as well related to internet. Article 10 ECHR and other sources (eg. the Declarations and Recommendations of the decision-making organs of the Council of Europe) provide a scope for protection. We’re reminded that not only Article 10 defines what comes to the scope for protection, but also rights to observe protests (article 11 ECHR), eg. The case-law of the Netherlands has suggested that privacy intrusions are the most upcoming issue of media access in the field of communications and the internet. Injunctive relief with targeted, specifics for execution has be offered for certain heightened privacy protection. General laws on informational acts, such as beleaguering on the internet shouldn’t lead to denying a person of means of communication if no alternative, similar means are available. I related the analysis finally to the question why we should define professionalism as an ongoing and timely issue. The definition attempted by the Court / Council of Europe according to different sources of international standards has been related to the concept of ‘responsible journalism’, but the European Court can be seen to use a too simple view of what sources constitute its test(s) in a case

A conceptualisation of psychological access to the Internet : adolescents, gender and attitudes

This thesis describes the conceptualisation of a construct proposed here as Psychological Access to the Internet and presents the development and testing of an instrument to measure the construct amongst adolescent children in informal voluntary contexts at home and school. The rapid growth and permeation of ICT across UK society, particularly in education, has raised the question of whether previous gender inequities observed in relation to computers will transfer onto new media such as the Internet. This inequity has serious implications for individuals' full social, educational and professional participation.In order to conceptualise the construct fully, exploratory and investigative survey(n= 1 09) studies, followed by an interview study (n=30), researched and identified attributes theorised as contributing toward the overall construct. This was followed by a survey of 729 adolescent children, in which an instrument grounded in the previous studies was tested. The relationship of gender, Internet experience and context of use was examined with regard to measurement of psychological access to the Internet.Examination of the psychometric properties of the instrument established that it successfully demonstrated discriminative validity. Factor analysis identified convergent validity for scale items across three dimensions, suggesting three discrete subscales: Internet Confidence, Personal Relevance of the Internet, and Internet Friendship. A second-order factor analysis found one underlying factor, establishing that the instrument was measuring a global construct, investigated and defined by this thesis as psychological access to the Internet.The findings of the research carried out for this thesis show that gender, experience and context of use are important variables in the measurement of psychological access to the Internet. The continuing relevance of this thesis in light of educational policy in the UK is put forward

Content-access QoS in peer-to-peer networks using a fast MDS erasure code

This paper describes an enhancement of content access Quality of Service in peer to peer (P2P) networks. The main idea is to use an erasure code to distribute the information over the peers. This distribution increases the users’ choice on disseminated encoded data and therefore statistically enhances the overall throughput of the transfer. A performance evaluation based on an original model using the results of a measurement campaign of sequential and parallel downloads in a real P2P network over Internet is presented. Based on a bandwidth distribution, statistical content-access QoS are guaranteed in function of both the content replication level in the network and the file dissemination strategies. A simple application in the context of media streaming is proposed. Finally, the constraints on the erasure code related to the proposed system are analysed and a new fast MDS erasure code is proposed, implemented and evaluated

Health information seeking on the Internet: a double divide? Results from a representative survey in the Paris metropolitan area, France, 2005–2006

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Internet is a major source of information for professionals and the general public, especially in the field of health. However, despite ever-increasing connection rates, a digital divide persists in the industrialised countries. The objective of this study was to assess the determinants involved in: 1) having or not having Internet access; and 2) using or not using the Internet to obtain health information.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional survey of a representative random sample was conducted in the Paris metropolitan area, France, in the fall of 2005 (n = 3023).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Close to 70% of the adult population had Internet access, and 49% of Internet users had previously searched for medical information. Economic and social disparities observed in online health information seeking are reinforced by the economic and social disparities in Internet access, hence a double divide. While individuals who reported having a recent health problem were less likely to have Internet access (odds ratio (OR): 0.72, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.53–0.98), it is they who, when they have Internet access, are the most likely to search for health information (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.11–1.87).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In the French context of universal health insurance, access to the Internet varies according to social and socioeconomic status and health status, and its use for health information seeking varies also with health beliefs, but not to health insurance coverage or health-care utilisation. Certain economic and social inequalities seem to impact cumulatively on Internet access and on the use of the Internet for health information seeking. It is not obvious that the Internet is a special information tool for primary prevention in people who are the furthest removed from health concerns. However, the Internet appears to be a useful complement for secondary prevention, especially for better understanding health problems or enhancing therapeutic compliance.</p