Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2026.
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2026
|
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867614033452990464 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Steytler, Mienke Mari |
| author2 | Parry, D. A. |
| author_browse | Parry, D. A. Steytler, Mienke Mari |
| author_facet | Parry, D. A. Steytler, Mienke Mari |
| author_sort | Steytler, Mienke Mari |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/135796 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:45:36.533Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/135796 The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa Steytler, Mienke Mari Parry, D. A. Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Information Science. Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. Steytler, M. M. 2026. The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/be820ca0-22d7-44c8-a5ab-197781b86d88 Despite increasing attention to the role of social media in adolescents’ lives, studies focusing on the Global South remain scarce (Ghai et al., 2022). Even less is known about how adolescents in low-income and under-resourced contexts in South Africa use social media, experience online risks, and apply digital literacy to navigate the digital environment. In this context, online risks, broadly categorised under the 4Cs framework (content, contact, conduct, and contract risks), include, for example, exposure to violent or sexual content, unwanted contact from strangers, engagement in risky online behaviours such as cyberbullying and sexual messaging, and exploitative commercial practices such as identity theft or trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation (Livingstone & Stoilova, 2021). Understanding adolescents’ exposure to these risks is paramount, particularly in contexts where digital literacy is not systematically developed or implemented. Digital literacy includes the critical knowledge and functional skills (Šmahel et al., 2023) required to use digital technologies in ways that enable, protect and allow for participation in the fulfilment of children’s rights in the digital environment (General Comment No. 25 on Child Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment, 2021). Against this backdrop, an exploratory-descriptive qualitative study was conducted, which aimed to provide a rich description of how adolescents living in low-income households in a semi-rural village in the Western Cape province of South Africa (1) used social media, (2) encountered online risks, (3) responded to these experiences, (4) acquired, understood and applied digital literacy, and (5) the individual and social factors that shaped the process. To address these questions, 20 adolescents, aged between 13 and 18 years old, were recruited through local community organisations, and interviewed. Substantial effort was made to locate, follow up, and arrange suitable access for this hard-to-reach population. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data, employing a reflexive approach to capture participants’ experiences and perspectives while acknowledging potential researcher biases as adults interpreting adolescent viewpoints. In summary, the study found that access to ‘personal social media’, by way of personal smartphones and profiles on social media, shaped the nature of these adolescents’ social media use. Social media use benefited participants by gratifying needs and online risk experiences reflected and amplified offline risk experiences, pointing to the role of context. What’s new about this was that the study found that despite online risks, participants justified seeking out some experiences, potentially to cope with challenging offline contexts. This finding matters because the participants lived in a village where the majority of the population experience challenging circumstances, which included not only low socio-economic status but also challenges such as substance abuse, gender-based violence, crime, the neglect of children and vulnerable people as well as illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (Langeberg Municipality, 2022). Additionally, participants were not sufficiently enabled with the digital literacy required to thrive online. Factors such as access to ‘personal social media’, which was impacted by socio-economic status, an invested adult – of which there were few – as well as age, gender, income and platform design played potential roles in how participants’ acquired, understood and applied digital literacy. In this context, the reflection and amplification of online risk experiences could have real-world, offline, consequences. With this in mind, the study calls for the urgent development and implementation of whole-community, context-specific, digital literacy initiatives sensitive to individual and social factors, especially in low-income, under-resourced, communities (Helsper, 2019). It further suggests that platform providers implement ‘by-design’ measures (Livingstone et al., 2023; Livingstone & Sylwander, 2025). This two-pronged approach could potentially help fulfil enabling, protective and participative children’s rights in the digital environment for all children and adolescents, everywhere. Masters 2026-04-10T10:29:37Z 2026-04-10T10:29:37Z 2026-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/135796 en Stellenbosch University 185 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Steytler, Mienke Mari The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa |
| title | The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa |
| title_full | The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa |
| title_fullStr | The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa |
| title_short | The Social Media Use, Online Risk Experiences and Digital Literacy of Adolescents Living in Low-Income Households in a Semi-Rural Western Cape Village in South Africa |
| title_sort | social media use online risk experiences and digital literacy of adolescents living in low income households in a semi rural western cape village in south africa |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/135796 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT steytlermienkemari thesocialmediauseonlineriskexperiencesanddigitalliteracyofadolescentslivinginlowincomehouseholdsinasemiruralwesterncapevillageinsouthafrica AT steytlermienkemari socialmediauseonlineriskexperiencesanddigitalliteracyofadolescentslivinginlowincomehouseholdsinasemiruralwesterncapevillageinsouthafrica |