Cybersecurity and the Culture of Protection from Digital Danger: A Sociocultural Study of University Students in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Daily life for university students in Saudi Arabia is now closely bound up with social media, messaging apps and online learning platforms. This dependence exposes them to a range of digital threats such as account hacking, harassment and reputational damage. This article explores how students develop a shared “culture of protection” against these dangers in their everyday online practices. Using a sociocultural lens and drawing on an exploratory study with Saudi university students, it examines how family expectations, religious values, gender norms and peer relations shape what they see as risky, whom they trust and how they choose to protect themselves. The analysis highlights three key dynamics: the moral framing of online behaviour as a responsibility toward self and family; the constant balancing of openness and control when managing visibility on social media; and a strong reliance on informal networks—friends, siblings and classmates—rather than formal institutional channels for security support. The article argues that cybersecurity policies and awareness initiatives in higher education are more effective when they build on these lived cultural logics instead of treating students as isolated technical users.