{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T06:28:49Z","timestamp":1787725729216,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787702400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Perceived safety is a psychologically consequential judgment shaped by objective threats, prior victimization, and mediated information. However, few studies jointly examine longitudinal crime data, national digital-information environments, and individual Internet use.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We integrated European Social Survey Rounds 1\u201311 with homicide data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Digital Society Project indicators, and World Development Indicators. Study 1 examined 308 country\u2013round\u2013year cells from 38 European countries, representing 442,100 respondents, using weighted country and survey-round fixed-effects models. Study 2 analyzed 408,149 respondents from 37 countries and 345 country\u2013round\u2013year cells using cell fixed-effects models.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      In Study 1, conventional country-clustered models indicated that within-country increases in lagged homicide were associated with lower perceived safety (\u22121.42 percentage points per within-country SD, 95% CI [\u22122.47, \u22120.38],\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.008), whereas increases in expert-coded government online disinformation were associated with higher perceived safety (+0.87 points, 95% CI [0.34, 1.40],\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.001), particularly in countries with higher long-run homicide rates (+0.52-point interaction, 95% CI [0.24, 0.80],\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001). However, the corresponding restricted wild-cluster bootstrap\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      -values were 0.087, 0.052, and 0.091, and country-specific trends attenuated the two main effects. In Study 2, more frequent Internet use was associated with higher perceived safety (+1.31 points per SD, 95% CI [0.83, 1.78],\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001). Victimization was associated with substantially lower perceived safety (\u221213.65 points), but the positive association between Internet use and perceived safety was stronger among victims (+2.67-point interaction, 95% CI [2.00, 3.34],\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001). These three individual-level terms remained significant at\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001 under 9,999-replication wild-cluster inference, and their directions remained unchanged when each cell received equal total weight.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The national-level findings should be considered provisional. The individual-level findings are consistent with\u2014but do not establish\u2014mechanisms involving access to information, social support, or perceived efficacy. Given the observational design, all results represent conditional associations rather than causal effects.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1918767","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T05:57:47Z","timestamp":1787723867000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Perceived safety in digital information environments: objective violence, online disinformation, internet use, and victimization across Europe, 2002\u20132023"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Xinyun","family":"Tang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai International Studies University","place":["Shanghai, China"]},{"name":"Institute of Ecological Sociology, Fujian Academy of Social Sciences","place":["Fuzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Guoliang","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Journalism and Communication, Chongqing University","place":["Chongqing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"511","DOI":"10.1080\/15205436.2025.2471866","article-title":"News media use and crime perceptions: the dual role of ideology","volume":"28","author":"Andersson","year":"2025","journal-title":"Mass Commun. 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