Korean adolescents’ profiles of digital citizenship and its relations to internet ethics: implications for critical digital citizenship education

ABSTRACT The study aims to identify adolescents’ profiles of digital citizenship based on the key elements of digital citizenship and to examine the relationship between the identified profiles and Internet ethics. Survey data were collected from 455 middle and high school students in South Korea and analysed with a latent profile analysis. Results revealed that there were three distinct digital citizenship profiles: communication-based; technically illiterate but politically active; and all-around digital citizens. Results of logistic regression analysis showed that gender, experience of digital citizenship education, frequency of posting on social media, Internet self-efficacy and Internet anxiety were significant factors predicting adolescents’ profiles of digital citizenship. The results also indicated that there were significant mean differences in Internet ethics across the profiles. This research will help to develop distinct strategies and differentiated digital citizenship education programmes. Educational implications including critical digital citizenship education are discussed.