CYBER CRIME AWARENESS AND COMPUTER ATTITUDE AMONG PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS

This study investigated cybercrime awareness and computer attitudes among 400 B.Ed. students from Punjab universities, considering gender, location, and academic stream. Key findings revealed that female, urban, and science stream prospective teachers showed higher cybercrime awareness, while urban and science stream teachers had better computer attitudes. No significant gender differences were found in computer attitudes. The study found significant interactions between factors for both awareness and attitudes, and a positive correlation between cybercrime awareness and computer attitudes. Implications include educating future teachers on cybercrime risks and prevention, focusing on rural and humanities students to improve awareness, and emphasizing safe internet practices in teacher training. The research suggests policymakers should create conditions to raise cybercrime awareness, especially among social studies teacher trainees, to better prepare them for educating students on online safety.