Digital hygiene among teachers

The aim of the study was to diagnose the level of digital hygiene among teachers in Poland. The study was also intended to reveal the factors (socio-demographic variables) that differentiate the level of attitudes and activities enabling the safe use of digital devices and the Internet. The research was conducted using the digital hygiene test and was carried out in the second half of 2023 in Poland (N = 736) in line with the need to strengthen the skills enabling the use of new technologies in a way that does not threaten digital health and safety. Based on the data collected, it was noted that (1) the surveyed teachers most often drew attention to not using the phone in a situation requiring attention, e.g., crossing a road or a track. In addition, very frequent behaviors included not accepting unknown people as friends, limited trust in links and content on the Internet, and conscious digital footprint actions; (2) the least frequent behaviors were the physical disinfection of smartphones, avoiding using phones before bedtime, and actively responding to negative content posted on the Internet; (3) individual digital hygiene activities are rarely correlated in a significant way, suggesting high internal differentiation; (4) having good ICT habits in one area does not guarantee the same in another area; (5) cluster analysis showed that 9% of teachers have a high level of digital hygiene in selected areas; (6) 44% of teachers have varying levels of digital hygiene, while 46.2% have medium or low levels of digital hygiene; (7) gender does not differentiate digital hygiene levels; and (8) workplace and school type is a factor in digital hygiene levels.