Turkish primary school children’s opinions related to the internet awareness

The purpose of the study is to examine the opinions of the primary school students on the Internet awareness with reference to some variables. Total 2911 participants from fourth to eighth grades in three public primary schools, which have middle socio-economic status participated in the study. The data were gathered through questionnaire and analyzed through descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages and chi-square. The findings revealed that the Internet awareness of the participants show significant difference in terms of their gender, grade levels, having Internet access at home, the location of Internet access, the purpose of the Internet use, the occupations, and educational backgrounds of the parents. It was observed that while male students focused more on the positive aspects of the Internet, female students focused more on the unfavorable aspects of the Internet. Likewise, it was found that the Internet awareness of the participants increased when their grade levels get higher. It was also found that the Internet use purposes of the male students were mostly playing games whereas female students mostly use the Internet for the purpose of watching filmThe Internet awareness of the participants who have Internet access at their home and who use it at home is higher than that of other participants, who do not have Internet access at their home. The findings of the present study revealed that the participants, whose mothers were housewife and the participants whose fathers were tradesmen, civil servant and labors, as well as the participants whose parents have a higher educational background have higher Internet awareness than that of other participants. With reference to the findings, it can be suggested that some training activities on the Internet awareness for the mothers, who are housewives, can be handled within the school-parent relationship activities.

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Internet awareness ,

Primary education ,

Children ,