Children represent a large, unique, and underappreciated user group of digital technologies (Gillett Swan & Sargeant, 2018). For this reason, the protection of children and their rights is among the issues of increasing importance in the digital age. It means that children are in a particular situation that requires a unique interpretation of human rights regarding social conditions and universal status in a digitized world (Öhman & Quennerstedt, 2017). This paradoxical situation points to an issue that needs to be emphasized when considering the best interests and well-being of children who are digital users. It also leads child rights experts to ask: "On what principles and with what qualities of environments and content should access to and participation in digital media as a right be based in a way that includes children's best interests? However, it is not easy to answer this question because even child rights experts and sector representatives are still unable to establish cooperation and understanding on promoting and respecting children's rights in digital environments and overlook the nature of the problems in this regard (Livingstone, 2021). Fortunately, "General Comment No. 25 on the Rights of the Child in Relation to the Digital Environment" published by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2021 emerges as a guide for us. This Declaration which includes issues related to the protection of children's rights in digital environments, draws attention to the need to improve the digital literacy levels of children, parents, childcare providers and educators. At this point, it is foreseen that the user profiles of children in digital environments can guide us in terms of the steps to be taken to protect both themselves and their rights. These profile findings can also guide us about digital literacy areas that should be included in children's rights education processes. In the scope of this research, it is aimed to extract the digital user profiles of children and to discuss the findings in terms of children’s rights awareness. With this overarching aim, the research aims to find answers to the following sub-questions:

a)             What are the most used digital platforms by children and their intended use?

b)             What are the children's perceptions of the emotional effects of digital tools/platforms on them?

c)             In what way do children's daily use of digital tools and spatial usage preferences intensify?

d)             What are the topics that are described as disturbing content by children on digital platforms?

e)             What are the aspects of digital tools/media that are considered beneficial and harmful by children? 

f)              What are the tendencies of children to share their personal information on digital platforms?

g)             What are the tendencies of children to use chat applications, and what are their purposes for use?

h)             What are the issues considered by children as the risks of digital environments?

i)              What are the types of content needed/expected by children in digital environments?

j)              What is the self-evaluation of children regarding their rights awareness as digital users?

k)             What are the children's rights that are actively used by children in digital environments and that are frequently violated on the other hand?

This research was planned and conducted by the mixed research approach in which quantitative and qualitative methods are used together. The mixed research method which is defined as the process of combining quantitative and qualitative methods and approaches in one or more successive studies and combining the obtained data (Creswell, 2013), takes the strengths of the two methods and completes the weaknesses of each other and allows for more effective and comprehensive research (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007). The participant group of the research consists of 1430 children between the ages of 9-18 in Turkey. An accessible sampling method was used to determine the participant group of the research. No special criteria were used to determine the children participating in the research. Children who wanted to participate in the research and who had parental consent were included in the research group. A questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions was used to obtain the data. According to Patton (2014), open-ended questions seek to grasp what people think without the limitations and predictions of predetermined categories. In addition, one-on-one online interviews were conducted with some of the children participating in the research. Parental permission was obtained for these interviews. The interviews lasted between 35 and 48 minutes on average. The research data were collected with a group of co-researchers who participated in the author’s children's rights education project. The research data were analyzed with thematic content analysis and descriptive analysis. According to Berg (1998), content analysis is used to systematically interpret interviews and field notes that are overlooked or deemed inappropriate for analysis.

As a result of the research, it was seen that children mostly use digital platforms through their tablets and phones. Also, it has been seen that the usage purposes are focused on playing digital games, having fun, chatting and creating a social environment. It was concluded that children mostly use digital tools for 4-7 hours a day and the emotional effects of these uses on children are concentrated in two different poles as anger and pleasure. The other result of the research, it can be said that children tend to protect their personal data and display a non-sharing profile on digital platforms at this point. It has been concluded that the beneficial aspect of digital environments is strongly emphasized by children in terms of the use of rights such as having a good time, social participation, communication, education, freedom of expression and thought. On the other hand, it is considered problematic in terms of exposure to violence, sexuality and marketing content. It has been determined that children do not consider their awareness of the rights and freedoms they have in digital environments sufficient. In addition, it has been determined that personal rights are violated mostly by cyberbullying harassment. The research results showed generally that digital literacy skills should be integrated into children’s rights education processes because there are some inconsistencies between children's digital user attitudes and their awareness of their rights. In addition, in line with the results of the research, some determinations have been made for more effective protection of children and their rights in digital environments.

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