Internet Safety Issues for Adolescents and Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Research on Internet safety for adolescents has identified several important issues including unwanted exposure to sexual material and sexual solicitation.

Although individuals with intellectual disabilities often have poor insight and judgment, and may therefore be at risk for Internet dangers, there is surprisingly little published on this topic.

To illustrate Internet dangers that adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities may face, we report composite case vignettes, based on actual clinical cases of adolescents and adults with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

We encourage clinicians to discuss Internet safety in their practice and provide recommendations for future research subjects.