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Children now-a-days spend considerable time online at a young age. Estimates have shown that 26 percent of the global population is under 15 years of age (“World Population” Source: Statista.com), and are relishing the opportunities generated by digital technologies.
Undoubtedly, digital technologies play a vital role in the lives of most children around the world; technological access is rapidly increasing among children and its integration is affecting their lives in both positive and negative ways (Székely & Nagy, 2011). It is estimated that one in every three digital technology users worldwide is a child (Bryne et. al., 2016) and every activity, be it educational, health, economical, governance or child protection, is being significantly changed as a result of technological penetration (Kleine, Hallow & Poveda, 2014).
Digital technologies provide children with levels of access to information, entertainment and communication while also providing an avenue for participation, learning and self-expression (Livingstone & Bulger, 2012; Bose & Coccaro, 2013). Digital technologies have also provided a means to publish, learn and communicate to billions of people in an exceptional way (Sanou, 2017) that was unimaginable only thirty years ago.
With these unprecedented advantages come risks; for example, digital technologies have made the creation and distribution of abusive images of children easier and have also presented new opportunities for abusers to contact children. However, various interwoven factors that impact the lives of children can improve or deter the utilization of digital opportunities, such as parental support, socio-demographics and developmental level.
The spread of these technologies in almost all regions of the world, specifically the internet, has been subjected to powerful scrutiny and critical reviews with regards to the challenges and opportunities generated by this technological integration and usage.
These debates cover issues such as risk, quality of information, opportunities, intellectual property, infrastructure and digital divide, which are observed at both local, national and international levels (Gasser & Cortesi, 2016).
An area of great concern that has attracted significant attention is the impact of digital technology on children and its widespread adaptation considering that most children are vulnerable in the online environment (Livingstone, 2014).
This work aims to develop a digital children’s right scale in Turkish which will critically explore the understanding of the types of internet risk children encountered and how children’s digital security can be enhanced. It also associates evidence from the TRCN with the continuing global discourse regarding practical solutions and policies on children’s rights and well-being in the digital age, especially in the Global South.
Problem Description
It is of great concern that one can observe the vast disparity that exists between the children of the Global North and those of the Global South with regard to technological access, opportunities, online security, as well as digital policy design and implementation (Gasser & Cortesi, 2016).
Statistical data about children’s use of the Internet and the prevalence of risks are limited. The data are often fragmented and non-representative and offer few possibilities for comparing studies and countries. In particular, definitions of risk often differ, and survey methodologies vary significantly, making it difficult to compare risk prevalence rates (OECD, 2012).
The question that is often raised by researchers in the field of children and media is how to accurately measure media use (Vandewater & Lee, 2009). These researchers are more focused on media usage among children, the type of content a child is exposed to, and the rate of exposure (quality and quantity of media content). Answers to these apparently basic questions have proven difficult to find. To date, methods for measuring media use among children employed by most researchers have fallen short of answers to the questions. This leads to the increasing consensus in media and children research for the pressing need to develop measurement approaches that will satisfactorily capture children’s media rights in the current digital technology era.