Effects Of Covid-19 Outbreak on Internet Use of Primary School Children

Abstract

The research was carried out to determine the internet use of primary school children during the COVID-19 pandemic process.
941 parents, who have primary school children (between 1st and 8th grades) in Turkey, who approved participating in the study, and who answered the questionnaire online, constituted the scope of the descriptive research. It was determined that the average age of the children within the scope of the study was 9.61±2.2 years, 52.5% of them were boys, and 64.2% went to public school. It was determined that 94.6% of the children had an internet connection at home and 56.5% of their parents did not use the
"Internet Safety Program", 51.8% of the parents "frequently" checked their children while they were using the internet, 75.2% of the children had his own electronic device (tablet, mobile phone, computer etc.). Parents stated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the internet use rates of their children increased (83.3%), their children developed behavioral changes due to internet
use (31.5%), and that they encountered with unwanted contents on the internet (15.2%). It was determined that the daily internet use time of children was 2.06±1.33 hours before the pandemic while it increased to 4.39±2.31 hours during the pandemic period (p <0.001). As a result of the research, it was determined that the rate of internet use of primary school children increased during the COVID-19 process, and that age, gender and family attitude had a significant effect on this increase.