Click Smart, Stay Safe: Cyber Crime Awareness across Gender and Course Streams

The study investigates cyber-crime awareness among college students by examining differences across gender (male and female) and course streams (vocational and non-vocational). A cross-sectional quantitative research design was used, and data was collected from 120 randomly selected students from Sangli and Kolhapur districts using the Cyber Crime Awareness Scale (Rajasekar, 2019). Results from a Two-Way ANOVA revealed that course stream had a significant impact on awareness levels, with vocational students demonstrating higher cyber-crime awareness than their non-vocational counterparts. However, no significant difference was observed between male and female students, nor was there any significant interaction effect between gender and course stream. The findings suggest that academic stream contributes substantially to cyber safety knowledge, emphasizing the need to incorporate structured cyber security education in non-vocational programs to strengthen students’ preparedness against online threats.