An Analysis of the Prevalence and Consequences of Cybercrime Among Secondary School Students

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 Background of the Study

The educational sector, as a key conduit for a country’s well-being, deserves more attention, not only because of its social, economic, and political clout, but also because of the significance of education in human life. The Nigerian educational system appears to be in disarray in every manner. The deliberate creation of new waves of crime, according to Okpala (2012), has damaged Nigerian students. Modern civilization appears to be inextricably linked to crime. Despite the greatest efforts of social workers, law enforcement agencies, and personal and criminal justice experts, the world is becoming a more terrible place. Youth engagement in heinous crimes such as cybercrime, cultism, armed robbery, kidnapping, rape, and sexual abuse, among other vices, is all too common and disturbing.

Cybercrime, according to Okesola and Adeta (2013), is defined as any crime involving the use of the internet or another computer network as a component of the crime. They went on to state that cyber crimes are crimes committed against a person or a group of people with the intent of intentionally hurting the victim’s reputation or causing bodily or mental harm to the victim via the use of modern telecommunication networks like the internet and mobile phones. “In Nigeria, perpetrators of this crime, generally referred to as “yahoo yahoo people,” are leveraging the internet’s e-commerce system to scam victims, most of whom are foreigners, of thousands, if not millions, of dollars,” Okesola and Adeta said. Gbadamosi (2017) claims that pretentious, reckless, oppressive, and undisciplined pupils who have avoided the law and obtained some ill-gotten money, notably through cyber crime, form a new identity or ‘class’ for themselves. To maintain their separate class and authority, these rascally students, dressed in the toga of youthful zeal, occasionally abuse fellow students, some of whom are also tempted to engage in cyber crimes, prompting academics to investigate the implications of this illegal behavior.

Statement of Problem

Every day, we observe more and more terrible examples of cybercrime in Nigeria, each one more horrific than the one before it. It has turned into a persistent mouth sore that gives us a great deal of agony and embarrassment since criminally minded individuals in the country are stealing and committing atrocities with the help of online commercial transactions. According to Folashade and Abimbola (2013), secondary school students have evolved beyond cybercrime to ritual assassinations including the use of charms to hypnotize targeted victims, a practice known as ‘yahoo plus.’ As a result, the effects of such conduct are not improbable, necessitating more investigation.

Cybercrime involvement, according to Margaret and Mark (2010), is connected to school dropout, hooliganism, armed robbery, and thuggery, among other things. Another consequence of student criminal activity is that it tarnishes their reputations, as well as the reputations of their parents and guardians. As a result, students who are jailed are frequently paraded in front of news crews, putting the instructional aim in jeopardy. Therefore it is against this backdrop that this study seeks to  present an analysis of the prevalence and consequences of cybercrime among secondary school students..

Objective of the Study

The broad objective of this study is to  analyze  the prevalence and consequences of cybercrime among secondary school students. Specifically the study seeks:

1. To determine the degree at which secondary school student involvement in cybercrime

2. To investigate factors that are responsible for secondary school student involvement in cyber crime.

3.  To ascertain the various cyber techniques used by cyber criminals to perpetrate the act.

4. To examine the  negative impacts the menace poses to the student and society.

Research Questions

1.        What is  the degree at which secondary school student involvement in cybercrime?

2.        What are factors that are responsible for secondary school student involvement in cyber crime.

3.        What are the various cyber techniques used by cyber criminals to perpetrate the act?

4.        What are the  negative impacts the menace poses to the student and society?

 Significance of the Study

Findings from the study will be helpful to government, management of academic institution and security agencies. It will provide the government with framework of information regarding the need for them to strengthen its security agencies which is saddled with the arduous responsibility of fighting cyber crimes in Nigeria. To security agencies, the study will enlighten them on the need to sustain the ongoing aggressive onslaught on cyber criminals in Nigeria. To institution of learning, findings from the study will reveal the need to include studies on cyber crime to enlighten student on the negative effect of engaging in it. Empirically, the study will contribute to the general body of knowledge and serve as a reference material to both scholars and student who wishes to conduct further studies in related field.

 Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is to  analyze  the prevalence and consequences of cybercrime among secondary school students. The study determined the degree at which secondary school student involvement in cybercrime. It will investigate factors that are responsible for secondary school student involvement in cyber crime. It will ascertain the various cyber techniques used by cyber criminals to perpetrate the act. The study is however delimited to selected senior secondary school in Asaba metropolis in Delta State

 Limitation of the study

Like in every human endeavour, the researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the scanty literature on the subject owing to the nature of the discourse thus the researcher incurred more financial expenses and much time was required in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size. Additionally, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. More so, the choice of the sample size was limited  as few respondent were selected to answer the research instrument hence cannot be generalize to other secondary schools. However, despite the constraint  encountered during the  research, all factors were downplayed in other to give the best and make the research successful.

 Definition of Terms

Cyber crime: Cybercrime, also called computer crime, the use of a computer as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child pornography and intellectual property, stealing identities, or violating privacy.

Educational Sector: The education sector includes both formal, school-based programming and informal, community-based programming.