Investigation of 12-17 aged adolescents, cyberbullying experiences and their parents awareness of cyber bullying

The present study was conducted to investigate cyber bullying experiences of 12-17 aged adolescents and awareness status of their parents related to cyber bullying. A total of 1129 adolescents who were attending to secondary schools in Ankara and 778 parents, were recruited. Data were collected with adolescent and parent viewing form and Revised Cyber Bullying Inventory-RCBI). For evaluating data frequency, percentage, mean, median, Pearson Chi-Square and Mann Whitney U tests and Logistic regression analysis were used. It is determined that 50.2% of adolescents were boys and 50.3% of them were attending to secondary school. Of them; 90.3% reached internet by smart telephones, 88.9% used internet for education, 89.0% had got a social media account, 25.1% used internet every day, 44.0% were monitored by their parents while internet using, 65.5% stated that they were cyber victims, 56.6% were cyber bullies. Of the parents; 67.5% were mothers, 36.2% were graduated from high school, mean income was 2925.87±1773.657, 97.5% knew their children had got a social media account, 93.3% didn't take any unpleasant message, 98.8% didn't do cyber bullying and 94.6% weren't cyber victims. It is determined that cyber victim or bully adolescents spent 3 hours or more at internet. Cyber bullying and cyber victimization experiences significantly differ as a matter of type of school, class level, frequency of reaching internet, using smart telephone and internet cafe, having social media account, sharing individual information. Parent education level, number of child, receiving education about risky behaviors at risky (p<0.05). In line with these results; parents and adolescents should be educated about the subject and further studies are suggested.