Digital Citizenship and Ethical Technology Use Among University Students in Rivers State: Legal, Wellness, and Security Perspectives

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the level of awareness and practice of digital citizenship among
university students in Rivers State, Nigeria, with a focus on the ethical use of educational
technology. Adopting a descriptive research survey, the study was conducted in the three public
universities in Rivers State, Nigeria (University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State University, and
Ignatius Ajuru University of Education), with a population of eight thousand seven hundred and
sixty-one (8761) students studying in the Faculty of Education in the three public universities in
Rivers State. Employing two sampling techniques, the sample of the study comprised two thousand
one hundred and thirty-seven (2137) students. A stratified sampling technique was used to assign
all the departments in the three universities into strata. Thereafter, the purposive sampling method
was used to select only 400-level students for the study. A 40-item self-structured questionnaire
was used for data collection using direct delivery and retrieval methods. Mean and standard
deviation were calculated to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested using
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that students in
the three public universities in Rivers State, Nigeria demonstrated a high to very high level of awareness of digital laws and digital rights and responsibilities, and exhibited digital security
behaviours to a high extent. With respect to digital health and wellness, students adhered to most
wellness behaviours to a high extent; however, two specific behaviours were rated at a low extent,
namely switching off phones at night and avoiding pornographic content online, indicating areas
of notable concern within an otherwise positive profile. The study emphasised the significance of
digital citizenship and responsible technology use among university students in the Nigerian
university context, noting that high awareness does not uniformly translate into consistently safe
digital behaviour. As such, it was recommended amongst others that universities, government
agencies, and regulatory bodies should strengthen digital health programmes, improve
cybersecurity education, and incorporate digital ethics into curricula.