New Perspectives in Science Education

Internet has been configured as space of ​​relationship and socialization between people, sometimes as a reflection of non-virtual reality and sometimes as an adaptation to the new tools that virtual space offers. In many times in this virtual space people are exposed to various psychological damages or online violence which take different forms. The clearest example would be found in the fact of using emails or virtual messaging spaces to harass, insult or threaten people, in what has been called cyberbullying. When this is exercised against women by the very fact of being, we can talk about gender cyberviolence or gender violence 2.0.

The purpose of this communication is to present the partial results of a research financed by the BBVA Foundation about the perception of young people of danger to exercise gender cyber violence, as well as the perception of the competences that they have to protect against that violence and the actions they perform. The method used was the survey using an online questionnaire as an instrument for collecting data. The sample is made up of 4,536 secondary school students between 14 and 16 years from different regions of Spain. The results indicate that young people of these ages uses numerous virtual environments, is perceived as competent in them, think that they are dangerous environments where they can easily exercise gender cyber violence. But in spite of this, he performs dangerous actions without being aware of what they are. These results alert the vulnerability of young people at Internet and the need to carry out educational actions aimed at informing and protecting young people against gender violence 2.0.

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