An Investigation Of Social Media Usage And Its Impact On Students Exposure To Cybercrimes

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the study

 Technology has been the success story of our century and has opened doors for beneficial inventions.  Technology has countries interconnected and the world has now become a global village (Ojo 2019). he information of most people and the economy of most countries in the world have become easily accessible with the help of electronic devices through the Internet and social media engagements and it is available to anyone who inquires, including criminals and eavesdroppers (Vladimir 2015). Social media is a computer technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas thoughts, information idea interests and other forms of expressions via virtual communities, networks and platforms. Social media connotes a web-based consumer friendly software platform interactively and responsively even to build or distribute content on some of the social media platforms that include: blogs like type pad, WordPress, image and video sharing applications such as Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, microblogs such as twitter and Tumblr, social sites such as Facebook, Myspace, WhatsApp, LinkedIn etc. Social media's strength lies in its ability to create highly productive channels to connect and interact with people freely anywhere, wherever, in real-time and worldwide (Rana, 2017).

According to (Simona, 2020) As of January 2020, Nigeria registered approximately 27 million active social media users, WhatsApp was the most popular platform used in the country. Nonetheless, the number of registered internet users in Nigeria decreased in more than 10 million from 2019 to 2020, the platform was mentioned by 94% of Internet users aged 16-64 years. Facebook and YouTube followed, being used respectively by 87% & 76% of the individuals with access to the Internet (Statista 2020). Just as social media has brought for several benefits in aspects of business, interaction, entertainment etc., it has equally posed social and security risks the impact the society, national and international security negatively. Frequently, personal information is shared when creating profiles on social media platforms thereby making it easy for online crimes to take place. Threat attacks including hacking, stealing of names, phishing Scams, viruses are now common online because users share names, date of birth, school names, Family information and other information on websites of social media (Ayodele 2019). As the activities online rise, there are worries about the ways the personal information shared by the users may be collected and analyzed (Hinduja and Patchin 2019).

All of these threats see to the introduction of the general action which is Cybercrime, and Cybercrime is generally known as the extortion or blackmail of organizations and individuals on social media or Internet websites or the forceful hacking of their personal emails to obtain personal information for fraudulent acts. Cybercrime, also called computer crime is 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. Cybercrime, especially through the Internet, has grown in importance as the computer has become central to commerce, entertainment, and government (Dennis, 2017). Cybercrime includes a wide series of criminal activities including: Phishing email messages, Unconstitutional access or unauthorized access to a person’s personal information, theft of financial or card payment data, theft and sale of corporate data, Cyber extortion (demanding money to prevent a threatened attack), ransomware attacks (a type of cyber extortion), identity fraud (where personal information is stolen and use). Cybercriminals aim to use a computing device to access personal data of a user, confidential business information or government information for illegal means (Tariq 2019).

Cybercrimes in Nigeria are of different categories ranging from; hacking, cyber-stalking, Internet frauds, online scams, ATM or credit card fraud, software piracy, phishing, virus dissemination, cyber-defamation.  In Nigeria, cybercriminals are referred as "yahoo boys". They usually take advantage of the open e-commerce and social media scheme to defraud unsuspecting people on sites (who are mainly foreigners or immigrants) of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars.

 All of these popular cybercrimes in Nigeria make use of the social media scheme to defraud people and this is because of the anonymity of the users on social media. Social media platforms are the success story of our century but also has the downside to it, social media is like honey to a bee where cybercrime comes in play, this alone should let one know that cybercrime is promoted through high social media usage, especially as long as the numbers users are visible. To give an idea of the numbers of users that consume these social media platforms, here are some:

•Facebook – 2.45 billion monthly active users (Q3, 2019)

•Twitter – 300 million monthly active users (Statista, 2019)

•Instagram – 1 billion monthly active users (about. Instagram, 2021)

Popular usage and consumption of these social media platforms is a problem because it gives fraudsters an access to millions and more active user profiles that may not know if they are real or fake, this simply proves that social media is like honey to a bee where cybercrime is concerned, fraudsters see social media users as a captive and trusting audience, that they could manipulate and lure into performing the acts that they would normally be vigilant about. Social media has sufficiently built a platform, not just for sharing thoughts and funny pictures, but as a playground for cybercrime.

The history of cybercrime which is believed to have started in the late 1980s by Robert Tappan Morris Jajoo. (2017). Cybercrime can be traced back to the introduction of three major inventions; the mobile telephones, the Internet and the computers. These three jointly brought forth an outbreak of cybercrimes, and today the current political, social and economic state of Nigeria has worsened the situation and left a bitter taste in the mouth of victims. The high rate of unemployment, horrible educational system and the harsh economy in the country all contribute highly to the proliferation of cybercrime practices in Nigeria.

The Nigerian government has set up a number of bodies and commissions to tackle this crime and reduce its prevalence in Nigeria. The ICPC came up with The Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000. The act seeks to prohibit and prescribe punishment for corrupt practices and other related offences. The government of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 also set up a working group known as the Nigeria Cyber Crime Working Group (NCWG) to address this phenomenon since the loss suffered by both consumers and investors creates serious credibility and image problem to the country. Similarly, according to (Abdulhamidet al, 2018), in Nigeria, a bill title “Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure bill” was prepared to deal specifically with the menace of social media fraud. The economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC) also investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud, popularly known as (419 fraud) and laundering. Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria (ISSPIN) have also assisted to curb the maladies (Awe, 2019). Even with these measures from these several agencies, cybercrime and social media fraud in Nigeria is still on the increase.Based on the above background, this study will investigate the social media usage and its impact on students exposure to cybercrimes.