Investigation of parental mediation according to some variables

The importance of technology in children's lives is increasing day by day. Although the use of technology by their children has positive contributions in terms of academic and social development, the literature mostly focuses on the use of intensive technology that has negative consequences. In this context, the duties and responsibilities of the parents may also vary according to the needs of the age. Hence, the responsibility area of the parents has been included in keeping their children safe online. Consequently, the intensity of technology use influences online risks as well as child-parent relationships, communication styles they establish with each other, how parents guide their children in media use, and media consumption habits of parents and children and parents. This new situation led to a new concept called "digital parenting" in the literature. However, there are not enough studies in the literature. Furthermore, it is thought that the studies on this subject will make important contributions to the determination of digital parenting awareness levels of parents in the context of lifelong learning. Therefore, the aim of the study was to adapt theParental Mediation Scale for Children's Internet Use en developed by Nikken and Jansz (2014) to Turkish and to examine parental mediation according to some variables. This research, which was conducted to determine parental mediation in children's internet use, is a screening type because the present status of the parents is examined according to demographic variables. This study was conducted by selecting the parents who were studying in 5th and 6th grades of secondary school with different socio-demographic characteristics by usingappropriate sampling method. The research was carried out in two stages. In the first step, data were collected for the scale adaptation process and the validity and reliability of the scale were calculated. In the first stage, 170 parents participated in the study. In the second stage, a screening study was performed with adapted scale. In the second stage, 341 parents participated. Personal information form and two different scales were used in the study. In the analysis of the data collected, various analyzes, t-test and one-wayvarianceanalysis (ANOVA) were used for the validity and reliability studies of the scale. As a result of the research, a valid and reliable scale which can be used to determine the mediation levels of parents' children's use of the Internet has been introduced into the literature. In the scope of the present study, it was found that the mediation levels of the children of the parents in the use of the Internet differed according to their ages, education levels and Internet usage experiences. In the trainings organized for parents to raise digital parenting awareness, policy makers are advised to plan in a structure that differs according to age, education level and Internet usage experience. In addition, a positive and significant relationship was found between parents' mediation scores and digital data security awareness.