Abstract

Social networking is the use of internet-based social media sites to stay connected with friends, family, colleagues, customers, or clients which can have social, business purposes or both, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, among others which may also become an obsession for the users. Thus, this study examined the influence of social networking sites on students’ violent sexual behaviour in Mainland Local Government Area. The descriptive survey design research design was adopted for the study. The sample consisted of 150 respondents drawn from the population of Senior Secondary schools students in the study area. Self-designed questionnaire was used for the collection of relevant data which was titled: Influence of Social Networking Sites on Studens’ Violent Behaviour Questionnaire (INSONESVIBEQ) with 0.74 reliability value Four research hypotheses were tested in this study, data were analyzed using t-test statistical tool. The study found that social networking sites have a significant influence on students’ violent sexual behaviour, there is significant relationship between the use of social networking sites and sexual cyber bullying of students, there is significant influence of social networking sites on sexual coercion of students and there is significant gender difference on the influence of social networking sites on students’ violent sexual behaviour. It was recommended that counsellors and all the stakeholders should play an active role in curbing sexual harassment in schools. Stringent penalty should be meted out to the offenders to send a signal to the potential culprits and parents should always be sensitized by the Counsellors during PTA meetings in schools.