Using digital communication methods in custody establishing personal relationships

One of the biggest problems in divorce and custody cases is the establishment of personal relations due to the increase in divorce rates in our country in recent years. The aim of this thesis is to use the current technological facilities in accordance with the requirements of the age in establishing personal relations of children in the cases of divorce and custody. In the US state of Utah in 2004, the practice of regulating the communication and relationships of parents with their children began by judges. Likewise, digital communication methods are used by judges in Canada to enable parents to communicate with their children. In this study, it is tried to reveal the positive and negative aspects of personal communication not only face to face but also using digital communication methods. In this study, 300 case studies were conducted on the divorce of Istanbul Büyükçekmece Courthouse 1st Family Court, 3rd Family Court, 4th Family Court and 5th Family Court between 2016-2019. A voluntary questionnaire was also conducted with 15 parents and 21 children who applied to the court for divorce. After the consent form of the participants was signed, a questionnaire including questions about the use of digital communication methods including personal information form in custody and personal relationship cases was evaluated with simple statistical methods. In the questionnaire, the subjects such as internet usage and access to internet, applications they use on digital platform and whether they perceive video communication to be provided with digital communication methods are discussed. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) program was used to analyze the results of file review of past decisions. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-Square Independence tests were used to evaluate the frequency and percentage distributions of the data obtained from the study. In the study, it was seen that 82.7% of the type of personal relationship was boarding from Saturday to Sunday and this relationship was established every 15 days with a rate of 90.7%. In the survey, personal relationship and duration were found to be similar. In cases where custody was in the mother, 80% of the fathers and 100% of the mothers were not satisfied with the personal relationship. The survey revealed that 100% of the parents and 95.2% of the children were using the internet. 93% of mothers and 60% of fathers consider video communication to be provided by digital communication methods advantageous. 90.5% of the children met with their parents who did not have custody, 38.1% of these interviews were once a week and 52.4% of the interviews were face to face boarding, 52.4% of the children were satisfied with this interview type and frequency and 47.6% were satisfied was not found. As a result of the survey, it was understood that 95% of the children considered video communication to be provided by digital communication methods advantageously. As a result of the study, it has been understood that technology affects people of all ages in all areas of our lives and the application of video communication which will be provided by digital communication methods in establishing personal relationship will lead to a new dimension of personal relationship. Keywords: Custody, Divorce, Personal Relationship, Internet, Digital Communication Methods.