Socio-Pedagogical and Psychological Determinants of Teenagers' Involvement in Destructive Online Communities

The article examines the impact of the Internet on adolescents in the context of digitalization. The theory of generations is analyzed and socio-psychological portraits of different generations are presented. The age group (from 14 to 22 years old) is the most dangerous from the point of view of walking in the field of destructive activity. Psychological and social factors are presented, namely the development of self-awareness, an aggravation of a sense of justice, the search for meaning and values of life, instability of the mental state, exposure to influence and manipulation. The determinants of the involvement of adolescents in destructive online communities are considered: general, which to varying degrees affect all adolescents and individual, which depend on a specific life situation. In turn, the following factors are attributed to common (global) causes: social tension in society, economic inequality, the penetration of crime into various spheres of public life, the crisis of family relations (this reason is the main and system-forming one), the abundance of negative content in the media and the global Internet. The author refers to the individual determinants of the departure of adolescents into destructive online communities: belonging of a teenager to a social group; distortion of the value system in society, which encourages a teenager to seek the meaning of life, accepting the values of a destructive online community; the desire to achieve power and assert himself; vedomosti, suggestibility, low level of critical thinking; rebellion. Also highlighted is the need factor, located at the junction of general and individual determinants of adolescent care in destructive online communities, the satisfaction of which is actively offered by administrators of destructive online communities, which ultimately leads to negative consequences. As a result of the conducted research, methodological recommendations were developed for parents, employees of juvenile affairs units (hereinafter referred to as PD), which will help teenagers think about the consequences of their behavior and stay safe. The training of future PD employees was also analyzed and recommendations were proposed.