Digital Profiles on Online Platforms: How Do Children Create Their Digital Profiles?
Author(s):
Eda Bakir (presenting / submitting) Canan Colak (presenting) Omer Faruk Ursavaş
Conference:
ECER 2017
Format:
Paper

Session Information

06 SES 09, Childrens' Practices, Perspectives and Media Literacy

Paper Session

Time:
2017-08-24
13:30-15:00
Room:
K6.15
Chair:
Yngve Troye Nordkvelle

Contribution

The Internet is an important interaction environment for individuals. Even internet has various benefits such as easy access to information, more frequent contact with friends, hosting educational materials and use for entertainment, it also has various online risks such as security threats, cyber bullying, sexual content (Baştürk Akça, Sayımer and Ergül, 2015). Adolescents and children under 18 can be vulnerable to online risks because of their lack of critical thinking skills, experience, level of awareness and ability to manage risky situations to cope with online risks (OECD, 2012). In this case, the way of using internet effectively and safely without damaging individuals physically, emotionally and psychologically becomes very important. In the OECD (2012) report, it was stated that children should be aware of online risks to protect themselves from online risks.

It is suggested that safe internet use trainings and effective integration of media or internet literacy with school curricula are beneficial strategies to use the internet in a safe way and make the internet useful for children. They emphasized that instead of preventing children from accessing online opportunities by restricting their internet access, a balanced policy should be pursued about the risks and opportunities that would arise from using these environments. According to media use habits of children study, time spent on internet increases as to grade level and 81% of high school students (9th to 12th grade) access to internet via computers at home and 58% of them access to internet via their cell phones.

In addition, these rates are higher than children at the primary level (Radio and Television Supreme Council, 2013). While internet access decreased with age, it is being investigated how children can use secure internet in terms of the risks that may encounter on the internet environments (Holloway, Green and Livingstone, 2013) and in this scope there are suggestions particularly to parents, teachers and institutions and organizations that will enact various laws.

In order to become active digital citizens, children need to use digital media and gain various experiences. While internet supports learning, entertainment and communication-interaction, and its access decreased with age day by day and it brings risks with various opportunities for children.  (Livingstone and Haddon, 2008).  In this context, if young children are thought to have had lacking skills and confidence in digital environments compared to their older friends (Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig and Olafson, 2011), they need to be trained with various skills in order to ensure their own safety in the digital environment.

Children who are not developed required skills and not guided in the digital environments are left alone in the online environments. Children who are straying in the online environments become the focus of bad content and harmful behavior. In this point, it becomes crucial to provide a useful education for children and help them to make right decisions.  Students who can make the right decisions will be trained in today's world expected skills . At this point, the pioneer of behaviors in the digital environment is digital identity and as well as digital profile which must be examined as new concepts. The digital profile can be said to represent the social and personal characteristics of an individual in digital media (Sohier and Bree, 2016; Livingstone, 2008). Given that digital media affects every aspect of children's lives, the importance of children's shaping their own identities and building relationships with others becomes evident. In this regard, the aim of this study is to examine how children who recently met with the internet have created their digital profiles on various online platforms. 

Method

This study is an interview survey conducted with qualitative research methods (Rose, Spinks and Canhoto, 2015). The focus of the study was how pupils at primary school level have created digital profiles online. The participants of the research consist of 7 primary school students. Among the participants, the age of getting familiar with Internet is 5 years old and the frequency of Internet usage is usually half an hour a day. Rose, Spinks and Canhoto (2015) reported that interview research could be conducted when data were collected only through interviews and focused on the participants’ experiences and understanding of these experiences. Participants are accessing the internet through various technological tools. But it was not found acceptable to take permission from children and their parents to observe these technological tools or the digital profiles that childrens create. For this reason, the research was planned as an interview research and a semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool. While creating the interview form, manipulative questions were avoided. The form was also checked by experts and two researchers who have taught various courses on qualitative research methods. The semi-structured interview form used in the research is presented in Annex 1. Before the data collection, students were selected on a voluntarily basis and their parents' permission was obtained. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted and then transcribed by researchers. The data were analyzed at the macro level using an inductive content analysis approach (Creswell, 2012). NVivo 11 package program was used for data analysis. In data analysis process, firstly codes and themes were created by both researchers separately. Secondly these codes and themes were examined by another researchers. According to the recommendations made on the codes and themes, the corrections were done and the data were interpreted.

Expected Outcomes

In this study participants' views on creation and management of digital profile were examined. It was found that children use the Internet to get information, communicate, and entertain and created profiles on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and on mail services. Participants often used their real names in their digital profiles and stated that they share a limited variety of information that identifies themselves in these settings except their real names. Participants stated that they did not share information such as age, phone number, school name and location information, but they shared information about themselves such as their own and friends' photos, hobbies, where they are from, and photos of places they visited. Participants configure their privacy and security by the options that social network applications provide such as private accounts or configure the security setting about who can view their digital profiles. In addition, participants did not state any idea about settings such as who can see these profiles when they are searched online and who can communicate with them. In this regard, it can be concluded that the participants are not have adequate information in order to ensure the privacy and security of their digital profiles. Participants stated that they have taken various precautions about privacy and security of their personal information when establishing digital profiles after the negative situations they encountered in digital media. On the other hand, participants indicated that they have created their profiles in digital environments by getting help from others, by using e-mail accounts that does not reflect their own identity, or by violating the age limit. Participants also exposed to some risks such as the use of inappropriate words, humiliating comments, the use of inappropriate images and follow-up requests from people they do not know in person in online environments.

References

Baştürk Akça, E., Sayımer, İ., & Ergül, S. (2015). Ortaokul öğrencilerinin sosyal medya kullanımları ve siber zorbalık deneyimleri: Ankara örneği. Global Media Journal: Turkish Edition, 5(10). Cresswell, J. (2012) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (fourth edition). Pearson: Boston. Holloway,D., Green, L., & Livingstone, S. (2013). Zero to eight. Young children and their internet use. LSE, London: EU Kids Online. Livingstone, S. (2008). Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers' use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New media & society, 10 (3). pp. 393-411. Livingstone, S., & Haddon, L. (2008). Risky experiences for children online: Charting European research on children and the internet. Children & Society, 22(4), 314-323. Livingstone, S., Haddon, L., Görzig, A., & Ólafsson, K., (2011). Risks and safety on the internet: the perspective of European children: Full findings and policy implications from the EU Kids Online survey of 9-16 year olds and their parents in 25 countries. EU Kids Online, Deliverable D4. EU Kids Online Network, London, UK. OECD, (2012). The Protection of children online. Report on risks faced by children online and policies to protect them. Obtained from http://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/childrenonline_with_cover.pdf on 21.01.2016. Radyo ve Televizyon Üst Kurulu (RTÜK), (2013). Türkiye’de çocukların medya kullanma alışkanlıkları araştırması, Bizim Matbaa, İstanbul. Obtained from http://www.byegm.gov.tr/uploads/docs/RTU%CC%88K%EF%80%A2_Tu%CC%88rkiyede_C%CC%A7ocu_klar%C4%B1n_Medya_Kullanm_a_Al%C4%B1s%CC%A7kanl%C4%B1g%CC%86%C4%B1_Aras%CC%A7t%C4%B1_rmas%C4%B1_Eylu%CC%88l_2013.pdf on 15.12.2015. Rose, S., Spinks, N., & Canhoto, A. I. (2015). Management research: Applying the principles. Routledge. Sohier, R., & Brée, J. Proposal of a Digital identity Scale. Obtained from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joel_Bree/publication/306537908_Proposal_of_a_digital_identity_scale/links/57befd4608ae2f5eb32e70f0.pdf on 21.01.2016.

Author Information

Eda Bakir (presenting / submitting)
Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Turkey
Canan Colak (presenting)
Anadolu University, Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University
Computer Education and Instructional Technology
RIZE

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