CYBERCRIME AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN ALEX EKWUEMEFEDERAL UNIVERSITY NDUFU ALIKE, EBONYI STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Crime is not new, it started since the creation of humans and it poses a great challenge and threat to the expected human and environmental development nations all over the world have applied several strategies to curb or combat crime hence no country can experience growth or progress with so many crimes (Adeniyi 2019). The growth of internet has paved way for new and countless free website over the internet. Along the line, the internet has created another avenue for internet crime referred to as cybercrime (Srikanth, Aishwarya, Irshad, Shruthi & Bhoomika, 2017) Cybercrime is a criminal activity that either targets or uses a computer, computer network or a networked device. Most cybercrime is committed by cybercriminals or hackers who want to make more money. However, occasionally cybercrime aims to damage computers or networks for reasons other than profit. It could be political or personal (Kaspersky, 2023)

The advent of social media has easily spread awareness of cybercrime among students in Nigeria. This has drastically increased the quest for participation in cybercrime, having seen the lavish lifestyle fluent on social media, clubs and other social gatherings, not knowing the danger behind this wealth (Ogunjobi, 2020) some youths go as far as withdrawing from school to join the pyramid of cybercriminals

Cybercrime involves the use of handset, computers and other electronic gadgets that have internet enablement to dispossess unsuspecting public of their belongings, most especially cash. Minorca and Schneider (2015) noted that the driving factors that lead to the adoption of cybercrimes are the progressively ubiquitous access, convenience, functionality and flexibility of social technologies. These factors have made the adoption and involvement in cybercrime very easy. Although computer and social media usages have tremendously improved mankind’s life by exposing him to different ways and sharing information, the seeming intractable cybercrime that today occupies the social, economic and political space of the world poses threat to human kind. Brown (2013) stressed that an additional benefit of social technologies provided on the internet is that they are frequently free or require marginal investment thereby barrier to adoption Agatha and Owusu (2015) noted that a majority of students in Ghana were engrossed in networking sites and that most of these users utilized these sites for criminal purposes which ultimately affects their academic performance negatively Dewing (2013) observed that the cell phone numbers and chart are very good medium to get in touch in the teachers quickly during school day if a student is going to be late for class or absent or complete outside the school in an emergency. Such helps the teacher to plan for the class and be in full knowledge and control of the class. Liccardi (2017) argued that there are four basic advantages of social media use in higher education there include enhancing relationship improving learning motivation, offering personalized course materials and developing collaborative abilities. Kuppuswamty and Shankar (2015) reviewed the social network websites grab students’ attention and then diverts it towards non-educational and inappropriate actions including all the processes that will make them track down victims with all the intensions and purposes to defraud them. Adeleye (2019) noted that internet fraud or cybercrimes have become very fashionable; almost a profession among youths especially students of higher institution of learning. Armed with a laptop, a phone and data, students can successfully use their God-given talents, acquire knowledge of computer and the wild space the internet provide for them to defraud unsuspecting victims of hard earned money. Uncountable arrests have been made, people have been killed in the process of engaging in cybercrime yet the challenge of cybercrime is on the increase in Nigeria (Igwe,2021) . Cybercrime; also called computer crime is the use of computer as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child, pornography and intellectual property, stealing identities or violating privacy (Sterling, 2023).It is a criminal activity that either targets or uses a computer, a computer network or a networked devices. Most cybercrimes are committed by cybercriminals or hackers who want to make money. Occasionally, however, cybercrime aims at damaging computers or networks of victims for no other reason order than financial gains (Kaspersky, 2023) Brush, Rosen crane & Cobb (2034) affirmed that a primary effect of cybercrime is finance. There are various forms of cybercrime and all aim at profit driven criminal activity which include ransom ware attack, e-mail and internet fraud and identity fraud as well as attempts to steal financial account, credit card or other payment card information

Various researchers have conducted studies to pinpoint the several negative effects of these sites on their users and finding suggested both bright and dark aspect. Hence many countries gained open access to internet technology within last twenty years (Kuppuswamy and Narayan, 2013) indeed, the growth of technology towards the end of the 20^th century propelled by the emergency of the internet satellite etc., led to what is called Social Media. Internet and its component outlets encompass the emergency of digital computerized or networked interactive information channel. In fact, the World Wide Web originally created in 1990 for United State military force has become not only an effective US army, but later convenient tool that issued by Civilians for communication, entertainment and learning purpose. Cybercrime involves the use of handset, computers and other electronic gadgets that have internet enablement to dispossess unsuspecting public of their belongings, most especially cash. Minorca and Schneider (2015) noted that the driving factors that lead to the adoption of cybercrimes are the progressively ubiquitous access, convenience, functionality and flexibility of social technologies. These factors have made the adoption and involvement in cybercrime very easy. Although computer and social media usages have tremendously improved mankind’s life by exposing him to different ways and sharing information, the seeming intractable cybercrime that today occupies the social, economic and political space of the world poses threat to human kind. Brown (2013) stressed that an additional benefit of social technologies provided on the internet is that they are frequently free or require marginal investment thereby barrier to adoption Agatha and Owusu (2015) noted that a majority of students in Ghana were engrossed in networking sites and that most of these users utilized these sites for criminal purposes which ultimately affects their academic performance negatively Dewing (2013) observed that the cell phone numbers and chart are very good medium to get in touch in the teachers quickly during school day if a student is going to be late for class or absent or complete outside the school in an emergency. Such helps the teacher to plan for the class and be in full knowledge and control of the class. Liccardi (2017) argued that there are four basic advantages of social media use in higher education there include enhancing relationship improving learning motivation, offering personalized course materials and developing collaborative abilities. Kuppuswamty and Shankar (2015) reviewed the social network websites grab students’ attention and then diverts it towards non-educational and inappropriate actions including all the processes that will make them track down victims with all the intensions and purposes to defraud them. Adeleye (2019) noted that internet fraud or cybercrimes have become very fashionable; almost a profession among youths especially students of higher institution of learning. Armed with a laptop, a phone and data, students can successfully use their God-given talents, acquire knowledge of computer and the wild space the internet provide for them to defraud unsuspecting victims of hard earned money. Uncountable arrests have been made, people have been killed in the process of engaging in cybercrime yet the challenge of cybercrime is on the increase in Nigeria (Igwe,2021) . Cybercrime; also called computer crime is the use of computer as an instrument to further illegal ends, such as committing fraud, trafficking in child, pornography and intellectual property, stealing identities or violating privacy (Sterling, 2023).It is a criminal activity that either targets or uses a computer, a computer network or a networked devices. Most cybercrimes are committed by cybercriminals or hackers who want to make money. Occasionally, however, cybercrime aims at damaging computers or networks of victims for no other reason order than financial gains (Kaspersky, 2023) Brush, Rosen crane & Cobb (2034) affirmed that a primary effect of cybercrime is finance. There are various forms of cybercrime and all aim at profit driven criminal activity which include ransom ware attack, e-mail and internet fraud and identity fraud as well as attempts to steal financial account, credit card or other payment card information

Perception is very fundamental in rejecting or accepting certain values in life. The manner with which individuals; particularly the youths; students inclusive perceive cybercrime seems to portray it as positive means of livelihood. Reep-van-den Bergh and Janger (2018) in their study which they conducted systematic review and found that yearly criminal incidence rate in Europe varied from 1 to 3% online shopping fraud and 1 to 2% for online banking payment fraud. Some forms of fraud affect less than 1% of the population, while online abuse; such as stalking and threats, affect no more than 3% of the population. Hacking affects 1-6% of people. Ige (2018) found that students’ perceptions of cybercrime produced high mean scores in a similar view. This implies that perception of cybercriminal is significant among people and perhaps explains why cybercrime appears a way of life.

On the other hand academic performance can be understood as the nucleus, around which a whole lot of significant components of education system revolve which is why the academic performance of students, specifically belonging to higher institution of learning has been the area of interest among researchers, parents, policy framers and planners (Agaraval, Agaraval, Kumar, 2021)Bossaert, Doumen, Buyse and Verschueren (2013) define academic performance as student’s success in meeting short or long term goals in education in the big picture according to the authors, academic achievement means completing high school or earning a college degree.

Class participation refers to the behaviors students engage themselves in class. The behavior can take many forms such as raising questions, responding to other’s questions, participation in discussions, providing feedbacks among others. These behaviors are functions being focused in classroom activities. Cybercrime requires consistent interaction with the victim through the use of computers, handsets or other internet enabled devices. Iloanya, Eneh and Ogu (2024) observed that in Nigeria today, graduates and undergraduates are the ones who engage in anti-social behaviors for the purpose of living a life of splendor. To this end, students who are into cybercrime have high disregard for education and to that extent have nothing to do with active participation in class activities.

Students who aim at having good scholarship should be consistent with studies. Such students should have a well-defined study habit and proper time management. Akinyetun, Salau, Bakare, Ahoton, Alausa, Odeyemi (2021) emphasized that students who do not have time for academic activities are prone to coming late to class, refusing to do their assignments or studying. Hence, the outcome ranges from examination malpractice, to utter disregard for education and withdrawal from education completely. Similarly, in a study by Adegbola and Fadara (2022) indicated that cybercrime instigates students bad behavior in students. In his study, he observed that affected students do not have time for academic activities and to this end refusing negative outcome on students learning.

A good classroom environment suggests that which all the members of the school community co-exist and have the mindset towards realising school set goals. Teachers are the closest set of people to students. for effective teaching and learning, students should have high regard for their teachers particularly in obeying instructions and submitting to the rules and regulations of the classroom and by extension the schoolat large. Parks Taekwondo (2024) noted that the best way to show a teacher respect and maintain cordial relationship with them is by listening to them and following their instructions. This is expected of every student, however who are into cybercrime maynot obey tjose class instruction because much time is needed in both studies and criminal activities. As Parks Taekwondo (2024) stressed that respecting teachers is the first step to becoming a good student and another critical regard one needs to show is on learning space and indeed, fellow students.

Although computers and internet have offered great benefit to society as more than-one-third of the world’s population had access to the internet. Internet is quite advantageous particularly among scholars, but the negative impact of the computers and the internet; technically referred as cybercrime tend to subject the entire world into a nightmare particularly among students and their academics. It is therefore the aim of this study to investigate the impact of cybercrime on academic performance of student

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Today the Internet has taken a firm grip of people's way of life. It is difficult to imagine a young man or woman who at least once a day did not check for updates in internet and internet enabled medias people around the world become more reliant on information and co0mmunication technology, criminals are increasingly shifting online. In 2020 the FBI estimated that more than $4 billion was lost to cybercrime in the United States {US Department of State, 2023). Buttressing this statistics, Norton Cyber Security Insight Report, (2017) noted that crime is on the rise in America with more than 143 million Americans affected by cybercrime in 2017. The report further unveiled that nearly 8 in 10 US consumers surveyed reported themselves or someone they know being victims

Onyebade (2019) noted that the effect of cybercrime acts among students is that they impugn their reputation, the integrity of their school and that of their parents and guardians, as such student; when caught are sometimes paraded before newsmen. It is unnecessary to say that cybercrime acts lead to loss of money, valuables and vital information. In the case of yahoo plus, it often results in the loss of body parts and precious lives as victims are maimed or gruesomely murdered for ritual purposes by students who use them to get spiritual or diabolic powers

Cybercrimes among the youths particularly among the literate ones have been on the rise recently as cases of cybercrime among youths are reported on daily basis. Founding fathers of the internet; when the internet was developed, were not willing to misuse the internet for the criminal activities. Nowadays in cyber space, there are numerous troubling events scholars have nevertheless attributed the world’s causes of cybercrime to unemployment, the negative role model, insufficient police facilities and social gratification are causes of cybercrime (Adeniyi 2019). Several countries of the world have criminalized cybercrime and have equally brought extant laws including to death sentence to deal with the perpetrators. In spite of all these there seem to be an upsurge into the crime. Muthusankar, (2016) stressed that cybercriminals are now advanced in their operations by targeting both the internet users and organizations. Large cooperation has experienced the attack by cybercriminals in the past.

University Students who form an integral part youths who are conceived as the highest users of the internet and to that extent are found more in that cybercrime. Several studies have been carried out on youth involvement in cybercrime but very little or none of these studies have addressed perception of youths; particularly students on cybercrime. It is therefore the aim of this study to investigate the impact of cybercrime. On academic performance of students with particular reference to students of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike

1.3 Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study’

1.What is the students perception of cybercrime in Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike, Ebonyi State.?

2. How does cybercrime affect class participation of students of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike, Ebonyi State ?

3. How does cybercrime affect study habit of students of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike, Ebonyi State?

4.How does cybercrime affect students-teacher relationship in Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike, Ebonyi State. ?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

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