| Description |
Computers and the Internet are not only becoming an indispensable part of corporate activities or scientific work, they also serve as a source of information, advice, entertainment, and self-realisation opportunities for many children, adolescent, as well as adults. In the Czech Republic, the Internet was used by 3.3 million inhabitants at the end of 2004, which represent approximately 33% of population. It is a group of adolescents that shows a high penetration of the Internet use: according to available surveys, in May 2003, the Internet was used by 65% adolescents aged between 12 15 years and 72% aged between 16 19 years. Clarifying the questions and priorities in the domain of friendships and partnership relations, as well as in the sphere of sexuality, is an inseparable part of identity searching in the period of adolescence. Identity searching in this sphere is also reflected in adolescents' behaviour in the virtual environment, which was the subject of the submitted survey. We are submitting the results of a quantitative piece of research which surveyed 681 secondary school students aged between 12-20 years. The data collection was held in May and June 2003 via common questionnaires (492 respondents) and website questionnaires (189 respondents). When comparing pen-and-paper questionnaire answers with website questionnaire answers, it was revealed that there were statistically significant differences with only 3 out of 95 questions, 2 of which dealt with the topic of sexual behavior. When filling in the online questionnaire, the adolescents tended to be more open: they admitted more frequently being inciters of sexual harassment. Furthermore, there are statistically significant differences with sexual harassment on the Internet between boys and girls: it is girls who are harassed more often (10.6% of girls versus 4.4% of boys), whereas it is boys who have a much stronger tendency to provoke sexual harassment (5.5% of boys versus 1.2% of girls). The submitted paper deals with adolescents' behaviour on the Internet in the sphere of friendships and partnership relations. It has been proven that it is the safety and anonymity related to the virtual environment that helps some adolescents overcome their shyness and worries when meeting new people, which they experience in their real life (35.6% of adolescents expressed agreement to this). However, the majority of adolescents (72.6%) refer to virtual relationships as superficial and short-term. At the same time, the opinion concerning a lower quality of virtual relationships does not prevent adolescents from using the Internet as a means of getting acquainted with their potential partners: 39.1% of adolescents have used the Internet when meeting their potential partners. It seems that, within the sphere of relationships, the virtual world helps satisfy adolescents' needs and developmental tasks. The Internet becomes another dimension, in which the adolescent satisfies his or her needs, which might be especially important for socially handicapped groups of adolescents.
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