Characteristics and behaviours of young people who meet online contacts face-to-face

ABSTRACT

The internet provides opportunities for social interactions which first occur in an online environment that can lead to meeting up in real life. However, growing concerns around safety and privacy warrant greater study of this modern-day phenomenon. Using a longitudinal dataset of approximately 4,300 20-year-olds in Ireland, this study finds one-in-three report meeting someone from online. Multiple regression reveals that females are less likely to engage in such behaviour, while the trait of ‘openness’, spending more time on the internet, being non-heterosexual, using dating apps, and being sexually active at 17 years are positively associated. Early exposure to information and communication technologies, as indicated by mobile phone ownership at 9 years, is also associated with online-to-offline encounters. A range of policy considerations are discussed, including the continued need for education in e-safety and cyber safety awareness from a young age through young adulthood, particularly for groups such as LGBT communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Emerging adulthood/adult transition
• electronic media
• technology, internet
• quantitative methods

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the participants and study team involved in the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study. Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) is funded by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA). It is managed by DCYA in association with the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Results in this report are based on analyses of data from Research Microdata Files provided by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Neither the CSO nor DCYA takes any responsibility for the views expressed or the outputs generated from these analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The Growing Up in Ireland data used for this study are available upon application to the Irish Social Science Data Archive (ISSDA). Available at: https://www.ucd.ie/issda/data/growingupinirelandgui/

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Commission for Communications Regulation and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications Ireland.

Notes on contributors

Gretta Mohan

Gretta Mohan is a Research Officer at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland and adjunct Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin. Her research interests include the economic and social impacts of electronic communications and digital technologies.