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This paper aims to identify the factors that motivate parents to adopt internet monitoring software (aka parental control software [PCS]) to curb problematic internet usage and safeguard their children online. By doing so, the authors are able to curb problematic internet usage and keep children safe online.

An online survey was conducted using a representative sample of 330 parents in the USA with children ages 10 to 15. Results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This research combines two theories, namely, technology acceptance model (TAM) and protection motivation theory (PMT) to factors that motivate parents to adopt internet monitoring software to help their children. Perceived severity, perceived vulnerability from PMT and personal innovativeness (PI) from TAM, which is related to self-efficacy and the belief that future technologies will require less effort to adopt, are key factors that influence parents’ perceived usefulness of PCS. Perceived usefulness and PI both positively predict parents’ purchase intention for internet monitoring software.

The study establishes that there are personal, technology and situational factors that motivate the adoption of PCS. These determinants have implications for how marketers identify potential users and how they might improve the promotion of internet monitoring technologies.

The paper extends the application of the technology acceptance model and PMT to predict technology adoption aimed at helping others. Findings show that personal and perceptual factors motivate parents’ adoption of internet monitoring software to curb problematic internet usage and keep children safe online. This paper is the first to combine the technology acceptance model and PMT to explain the adoption of software solutions to protect others online. By doing so, a more thorough account of parents’ technology adoption to protect their children is offered.

This study aims to understand master’s students’ experiences of service-learning, following their participation in a workshop with local social innovators whose activities had contributed to combating poverty in East Africa and to determine how this participation affected work on the students’ theses. The authors also explored possible gender differences in this context.

The study was based on pretest–posttest mixed methods research design. Data were collected from master’s students within the social sciences and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, respectively, in Kenya and Uganda, via surveys and interviews before the workshop, immediately afterwards and six months later.

Students’ immediate experience was that the workshop contributed to increased critical awareness, adoption of transdisciplinary community-serving approaches and strengthened self-confidence. Six months later, most had related their projects to social problems (e.g. poverty) in their communities. Moreover, the results motivated integration of gender-sensitive curricula based on service-learning in East Africa.

Based on the results, the authors suggest a framework for gender-sensitive curriculum development that can stimulate service-learning in master’s students. Implementation of such a curriculum could eventually contribute to community development, including, e.g. poverty reduction.

Studies on service-learning are rare in Africa, especially in postgraduate education. Gender-sensitive studies on service-learning are generally scarce and the same holds for studies on encouraging STEM students to integrate social innovation into their thesis work. By combining these aspects, this study presents an original contribution to existing research.

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