A Study on Social Media Literacy and cybercrimes Against Youth in Kumaon and Garhwal Regions of Uttarakhand

Abstract

In the digital age, Social Media has become the most preferred medium of newlinecommunication, and India has the second-highest number of internet and social media newlineusers globally. The United Nations (UN) and the Supreme Court of India (SCI) have newlinealso declared access to the internet a fundamental human right and most communication newlinecurrently happens through social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, newlineYouTube, and Twitter. Moreover, social media is no longer a mere platform for newlineexchanging messages rather it has become a major means for the dissemination of newlineinformation, a medium of interaction and participation and a mode of entertainment. newlineAs social media is driving change in the way people communicate, these platforms are newlinewitnessing a huge boost in the number of people joining them every year. In India itself, newlineabout 467 million people are using social media platforms (Demand Sage). In fact, these newlineplatforms have become indispensable for today s youth, and they spend more than 27 newlinehours a week on social media (Sachdeva and Tripathi, 2019). However, the usage of social newlinemedia is dominated by youth residing in urban areas of India. newlineWith the growing popularity of social media, Social Media Literacy (SML) has become newlinean increasingly important skill. SML enables users to create and share their own content newlineand improves their ability to analyse and evaluate information available on social media newlineplatforms. More importantly, SML helps users to navigate safely on social media while newlinebeing aware of the problems associated with this media (Kimbrough and Guadagno, newline2019). newlineIn several studies, it has been reported that despite massive use of social media by youth, newlinethey often lack the necessary skills required to successfully create, analyse, understand newlineand evaluate information. Also, they also struggle to make the right decisions about its newlineuses. Therefore, as youth increasingly rely on the internet and social media, their newlinevulnerability to cybercrime becomes a significant concern and addressing this literacy