Assessing Z generation engineering students' social media platform usage and safety awareness

Abstract

Despite various attempts to enhance community awareness, the number of cybercrime cases continues to rise. A key contributing factor to this trend is the lack of security awareness when using social media platforms. As such, this study aimed to examine the frequency of social media platform use and the level of security awareness among Generation Z engineering students in Malaysia. Using a quantitative approach, a survey-style study was conducted, involving a sample of 410 randomly selected Generation Z engineering students from across Malaysia. Results indicated that Malaysian Generation Z engineering students exhibit moderate levels of security awareness when using social media. Furthermore, Chat and Messaging Network platforms were found to be the most commonly used social media platforms among this group.