Investigating pre-service primary school teachers' perceived online risks for children

Contemporary studies reveal that children meet the internet at earlier ages and their internet access rates are on the rise. In line with these trends, children are more frequently exposed to online risks. This requires ensuring children's safe access to online opportunities. Teachers are assumed one of the major stakeholders in sustaining a safe internet experience. Since children frequently refer to teachers about online risks, teachers' perceptions on online risks for children is a hot topic. Recent reports on Turkish parents' lack of internet literacy and current trends in children's internet use, promote the importance of pre-service primary school teachers' perceived online risks threatening children in Turkey. The aim of the current study was to investigate pre-service primary school teachers' perceived internet risks pertaining to children with regard to gender, having trained on safe internet use, online risk experience, internet use frequency and the number of internet services used. The research was designed as a cross-sectional survey study, which began with the instrument development phase. The researcher surveyed the literature for descriptive online risk frameworks. These frameworks were elaborated and one of them was selected as the basis for scale development. Selected framework was evaluated for Turkish context through an expert panel. Followig the expert panel, raw items for each dimension was produced. The item pool was then evaluated through another expert panel, which involved scholars with scale development experience. Following the second expert panel, a pilot form was developed and subjected to expert views for language and face validity. Following these studies the pilot form was administrated to a small sample of pre-service teachers for evaluating the clarity of the items. Next, the pilot form was tested for construct validity through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Reliability of the scale was checked through the Cronbach's α coefficient and test – re-test procedures. Upon completion of these tests the development of "the Scale of Perceived Online Risks for Children and Adolescents" was completed. Participants were 1890 pre-service teachers studying at primary school education departments of 19 Turkish state universities. Data were analyzed with independent samples t tests, one-way between-groups ANOVA, one-way repeated-measures ANOVA and non-parametric correlations. Findings revealed that pre-service primary school teachers demonstrated a high perception level regarding online risks for children. Female pre-service teachers' risk perceptions were higher than that of male pre-service teachers. Pre-service teachers' risk perceptions did not differ in terms of having trained for safe internet and online risk experience. Besides, the correlations between risk perceptions and either internet use frequency or the number of utilized internet services were not significant. Perceived risk literature suggests high perceived risk as a determinant of risk aversion. Teachers with high perceived risk are expected to communicate negative messages to children about the internet. Besides, high perceived risk may result in resistance to technology integration endeavors. Therefore, risk communication and risk mitigation studies are needed for pre-service teachers. Awareness raising campaigs for pre-service teachers are required including but not limited to primary school, IT and psoychological counseling fields. Furthermore, all teachers need to take part in professional development studies on children's safe internet use. The other stakeholders in children's safe internet use are families, peers, mentors, educational administrators, software development companies and policy makers. Holistic awareness raising and risk communication studies covering all stakeholders should be implemented. However, since the most prominent element in children's safe internet use are children themselves, the most fruitfull line of implementation would be empowering the children. Therefore, a holistic approach integrating safe and responsible internet use into all syllabuses is essential. Keywords: primary school teachers, pre-service teachers, perceived internet risks