Increasing online child abuse awareness level of adults in the context of media's role in education

With the rapid advancement of digitalization, children are increasingly exposed to various risks in online environments. Since it is primarily the responsibility of parents to protect children from the dangers of online spaces, children who lack parental care may be particularly vulnerable to online abuse risks. The aim of this thesis is to enhance the awareness levels of caregivers of children under state protection concerning the risks of online child abuse on social media platforms, within the context of the media's role in educating individuals. This thesis, which employs a mixed-methods approach, adopts an exploratory sequential design. The research participants were selected using a purposeful sampling method. In the qualitative phase, interviews were conducted with 14 responsible caregivers to assess their current knowledge levels regarding online child abuse and to identify their educational needs. In the quantitative phase, a training session was implemented with the participation of 42 responsible caregivers, and a weak experimental design was used to measure the effectiveness of the training. The qualitative findings, when assessed within the framework of the media's educational function, reveal that social media is used by individuals as a tool for acquiring information and has positive effects. The research findings indicate that caregivers responsible for children have a general awareness of children's use of social media but have limited awareness regarding its implications. They also struggle to develop a systematic approach to monitoring social media usage and guiding children. In this context, it was identified that caregivers need informative, accessible, and effective media materials to raise awareness about online child abuse. The quantitative findings demonstrate that the training provided and the media outputs included in the training significantly increased the caregivers' awareness levels regarding online child abuse.