IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v11y2024i1d10.1057_s41599-024-03482-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internet usage, access, and supervision among Ghanaian children: a cross-sectional study

Author

Listed:
  • Frank Kyei-Arthur

    (University of Environment and Sustainable Development)

  • Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi

    (Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection)

  • Solomon Sarpong

    (University of Environment and Sustainable Development
    University of Environment and Sustainable Development)

Abstract

Children’s access to and usage of the Internet has numerous benefits. However, their Internet access and use may pose risks to them, including cyberbullying, grooming, sexting, and exposure to dangerous materials. These risks may be exacerbated by inadequate supervision of children’s online activities. Therefore, this study examined the prevalence of Internet use, Internet access, and Internet use supervision among children aged 8–17 in Ghana. This study used secondary quantitative and qualitative data from the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used to analyze the quantitative data. In contrast, the qualitative data was analyzed using the constant comparison method with the aid of NVivo software version 10. The results showed that 90.5% of children had ever used the Internet. Smartphones (45.7), café facilities (21.7), and laptops/computers (21.6) were the most popular sources of Internet access. More than half of children (56.7) indicated they received little or no supervision when using their smartphones to access the Internet, which could lead to engagement in fraudulent activities, exposure to violent scenes online, and Internet addiction. The study found that most children had never used the Internet and received little or no supervision when accessing the Internet. It is, therefore, recommended that children need to be educated on the benefits and potential risks of excessive Internet use. Also, parents need to supervise and monitor their children’s Internet usage at home.

Suggested Citation

  • Frank Kyei-Arthur & Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi & Solomon Sarpong, 2024. "Internet usage, access, and supervision among Ghanaian children: a cross-sectional study," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03482-8
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03482-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-03482-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-024-03482-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gallego, Francisco A. & Malamud, Ofer & Pop-Eleches, Cristian, 2020. "Parental monitoring and children's internet use: The role of information, control, and cues," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    2. Leonardo Bursztyn & Lucas C. Coffman, 2012. "The Schooling Decision: Family Preferences, Intergenerational Conflict, and Moral Hazard in the Brazilian Favelas," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(3), pages 359-397.
    3. Correa, Teresa & Pavez, Isabel & Contreras, Javier, 2017. "Beyond access: A relational and resource-based model of household Internet adoption in isolated communities," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 757-768.
    4. Jasmina Byrne & Patrick Burton, 2017. "Children as Internet users: how can evidence better inform policy debate?," Journal of Cyber Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 39-52, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Frank Kyei-Arthur, 2024. "Prevalence and predictors of internet use among Ghanaian older adults: evidence from the Ghana 2021 Population and Housing Census," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Damien de Walque & Christine Valente, 2023. "Incentivizing School Attendance in the Presence of Parent-Child Information Frictions," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 256-285, August.
    2. Hoyt Bleakley & Joseph Ferrie, 2016. "Shocking Behavior: Random Wealth in Antebellum Georgia and Human Capital Across Generations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(3), pages 1455-1495.
    3. James Berry, 2015. "Child Control in Education Decisions: An Evaluation of Targeted Incentives to Learn in India," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1080.
    4. Pamela Giustinelli & Charles F. Manski, 2018. "Survey Measures Of Family Decision Processes For Econometric Analysis Of Schooling Decisions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 81-99, January.
    5. Agostinelli, Francesco & Avitabile, Ciro & Bobba, Matteo, 2021. "Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling," TSE Working Papers 21-1196, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Oct 2023.
    6. Joana Elisa Maldonado & Kristof De Witte & Koen Declercq, 2022. "The effects of parental involvement in homework: two randomised controlled trials in financial education," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1439-1464, March.
    7. Jörg Peters & Jörg Langbein & Gareth Roberts, 2018. "Generalization in the Tropics – Development Policy, Randomized Controlled Trials, and External Validity," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 33(1), pages 34-64.
    8. Eric Draeger, 2021. "Do conditional cash transfers increase schooling among adolescents?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 743-766, October.
    9. Del Rey, Elena & Estevan, Fernanda, 2013. "Conditional cash transfers and education quality in the presence of credit constraints," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 76-84.
    10. Pamela Giustinelli, 2016. "Group Decision Making With Uncertain Outcomes: Unpacking Child–Parent Choice Of The High School Track," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(2), pages 573-602, May.
    11. Dinkelman, Taryn & Berlinski, Samuel & Busso, Matias & Martinez A., Claudia, 2021. "Reducing Parent-School Information Gaps and Improving Education Outcomes: Evidence from High-Frequency Text Messages," CEPR Discussion Papers 15949, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Rosa Sanchis-Guarner & José Montalbán & Felix Weinhardt, 2021. "Home Broadband and Human Capital Formation," CESifo Working Paper Series 8846, CESifo.
    13. Manisha Shah & Bryce Millett Steinberg, 2021. "Workfare and Human Capital Investment: Evidence from India," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 56(2), pages 380-405.
    14. Richard Akresh & Damien de Walque & Harounan Kazianga, 2013. "Cash Transfers and Child Schooling: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Role of Conditionality," Economics Working Paper Series 1301, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business.
    15. Sumarto, Sudarno & Bazzi, Samuel, 2011. "Social Protection in Indonesia:Past Experiences and Lessons for the Future," MPRA Paper 57893, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Matthias Doepke & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2017. "Parenting With Style: Altruism and Paternalism in Intergenerational Preference Transmission," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 1331-1371, September.
    17. Zhang, Junsen & Zhou, Kang, 2023. "Quota removal, destination-specific export shocks, and skill acquisition in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    18. Karthik Muralidharan & Paul Niehaus, 2017. "Experimentation at Scale," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 103-124, Fall.
    19. Chen, Yefeng & Yang, Wenyuan & Luo, Gansong & Luo, Jun, 2024. "Choosing tournament for children: Parenting style and information intervention," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    20. Eric Edmonds & Ben Feigenberg & Jessica Leight, 2023. "Advancing the Agency of Adolescent Girls," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(4), pages 852-866, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03482-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.