Because of the emerging popularity of social network sites (SNS) among teenagers, adults’ concerns about privacy and security are increasing. School education has been put forth as a possible solution (Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig, & Olafsson, 2011)). However, although safety interventions regularly have an impact on knowledge and awareness, an immediate impact on attitudes and behaviour is often lacking in media education interventions (Martens, 2010). A possible reason for this lack of impact on attitudes and behaviour is that interventions are often developed following instructional guidelines from recent educational theories, such as collaborative learning (Duffy & Cunningham, 1996). These guidelines might only lead to better knowledge-construction, and might not be adequate to change reputation related behaviour -such as those related to risks on SNS. Following the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) and theories about peer pressure during adolescence (Sumter, Bokhorst, Steinberg, & Westenberg, 2009), it has been hypothesized that interventions with an emphasis on collaborative learning might be less effective in changing attitudes and behaviour than interventions with an emphasis on individual reflection. To test this hypothesis, a quasi- experimental intervention study, implementing two different interventions in a real-life classroom setting using a pretest-posttest design, was set up. It was found that both a course with collaborative learning and a course with individual reflection obtained their goal in raising the awareness about contact risks on SNS. However, only a course with an emphasis on individual reflection had a consistent impact on attitudes and behaviour. Implications of these results are discussed
