YOUTH’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS INTERNET CRIME: SOCIAL FACTORS, CAUSES AND EFFECTS

Computer crime, also commonly referred to as Internet or online crime is any type of crime scheme that uses one or more components of the Internet to commit a criminal act. Agreeably, the Internet technology has influenced productivity and connectivity among people. This is not without some security challenges that threaten the users of the Internet. The level at which these security challenges threaten both the citizenry and the government of Nigeria is alarming. This implies that Internet crime in Nigeria is societal menace and questions on the factors enabling the rampant of Internet crime among the youth in Nigeria must be asked. The objective of this paper is to address the social factors, causes and the effects of youth's attitude towards Internet crime. As such, 130 Internet users from universities were surveyed using self-administered questionnaires distributed across Lagos state, Nigeria. The data collected through survey and questionnaire was analyzed using analytical techniques such as Pearson correlation and hierarchical regression. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that there is significant effect of age, sex, belief, knowledge, commitment, and involvement factors on the youth involvement in Internet crime in Nigeria. However, security policy severity, security policy certainty, attachment, and attitude did not have significant effect on youth involvement in Internet crime in Nigeria.