ABSTRACT
A major area of concern for parents, teachers and policy makers is the question of risks that children and young people face in the course of their everyday use of the internet. Consequently, much research has been devoted to the subject of internet-related risks (Livingstone and Haddon, 2009b; Livingstone, et al., 2012). To advance the audience research dimension, however, this chapter argues for a focus on young people’s ethical perspectives on internet uses, practices and risk taking. Addressing the moral dimension of internet use is relatively new (Orgad, 2007; Flores and James, 2013); heretofore, it is a topic associated more with audience practices in relation to television viewing. We argue that attending to the point of view of ordinary audiences, rather than constructing a priori labels for practices as risks, is necessary. Accordingly, this chapter proposes the concept of positioning to capture how individuals, including young people, negotiate public discourses about what is worthy of attention, risky or considered acceptable both on the internet and in traditional media channels.
