Abstract

This article presents some of the most relevant results of a survey of 2,900 Spanish minors aged between 9 and 17 years who are Internet users and who were asked about their online habits. It focuses on an analysis of their exposure to inappropriate content on the Internet, typified as information about injury to others or self-injury, ways to commit suicide, anorexia, bulimia, hate messages, drug use, or violent images. It also analyzes the exposure to experiences with viruses or malware and online fraud, and risks related to the misuse of personal information, sharenting, and excessive use. Differences are observed by age groups, and also by gender, for example, regarding the exposure to hate messages against certain groups, which during adolescence is noticeably more frequent among girls than among boys. The results, which are partially comparable to those of two equivalent surveys carried out in 2010 and 2015, allow us to conclude that the exposure to online risks has increased in recent years.