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DCC01
Children and Parents: Opportunities and Challenges of Digital Media
PP 062
Ensuring Children's Rights Online in Turkey: From Ethnographic Insights Towards a Firm Governance
E. Ercan Bilgic
1
, E. Saka
2
, M. Akbaş
3
1
Istanbul Bilgi University, Media and Communication Systems, İstanbul, Turkey
2
Istanbul Bilgi University, Public Relations, İstanbul, Turkey
3
Child Rights Specialist /Graduate Student of Media and Communication Studies at Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey
As the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child remarked, Turkey has“yet to adopt a comprehensive rights-based approach to the strategy”and“the culture
of child rights remains weak.”Especially when it comes to children’s rights in the digital age, awareness about child rights remain even weaker and limited
with the right to protection of the children from harm. However, to have a chance to express themselves independently of their family and their commu‑
nity, children must be aware and should be empowered of their own rights, especially when using their right to participate as an agent in the digital age.
Existing or proposed paternalist laws that negatively function against digital participation cannot allow children’s own agency to protect themselves and to
participate. Existing official discourses or legislative propositions still submit“children’s online protection”as a pretext for censorship and prohibitions.There
should also be legislation that will promote positively about the participatory potential of digital communications. Right to participate gives responsibility
to all adults around child. Family, school, community, industry and government have role to bring up safer spaces for children’s online/digital experience.
In this paper, the responsibilities of parents, government and industry separately will be addressed and considered on the basis of the main points that are
emphasized in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, namely“the right to protection from harm, the right to provision to meet needs, and the right
to participation as an agent”(Livingstone, 2014). Besides, children’s needs and requests will be discussed from children’s point of view based on our ethno‑
graphic data from the children forums and focus groups we participated. The main argument will be that plurality of actors in Turkey should be involved in
the process of ensuring children’s rights online and that the government should interact with the society, NGOs and industry more broadly. Despite Turkey’s
first Child and Media Strategic Plan 2014–2018 and (National Child Rights Strategy and Action Plan 2013–2017) Turkey did not take sufficiently step for
a holistic approach towards children and media, especially digital media. The possibilities to raise“awareness about children’s rights”online,“to bring about
behavioral and attitudinal change in favour of these rights”, and “to enhance the abilities of duty-bearers and rights-holders to claim and realize them” in
the digital age will thoroughly be discussed, in line with the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Children’s own experiences
and demands on the subject matter will also be given place. Besides, it will also be debated why the governance of the children’s rights in the digital age
should be contextualized in a network of especially non-governmental organizations and institutions not only at national but also at regional and global
levels while constantly keeping children’s point of view on focus. Ethnographic insights will substantiate our argumentation.
PP 063
Which Children Struggle More with Privacy Risks? Looking at the Role of Personal Characteristics and Children’s Social Context, with
a Focus on the Practice of Profile Hacking
S. Vandoninck
1
, L. d'Haenens
1
1
KU Leuven, Institute for Media Studies, Leuven, Belgium
When looking at what bothers children online, they spontaneously mention various kinds of privacy risks. A situation that particularly upsets children is
hacked profiles or hacked accounts. Especially when the‘hacker’misuses the profile or account to post rude messages or embarrassing pictures, children de‑
scribe the situation as very problematic and painful, and associate it with feeling worried, unsafe, scared, angry or panicked (Barbovschi, 2014, p. 31–35). As
the situation gets more‘out of control’, negative emotions intensify.When a nasty message is disseminated to a large audience and/or when the perpetrator
is unknown, perceived control decreases, and victims report more intense negative feelings (Machmutow et al., 2012; Kowalski, Limber & Agatston, 2012).
Sometimes, online bullying is used as an ‘umbrella term’that covers all kinds of dramatic incidents, including practices such as profile hacking (Barbovschi,
2015, p. 181–186). Assuming that the (emotional) impact of profile hacking is not solely dependent on situational elements described above, our first goal
is to investigate the role of personal characteristics and the social context in the way young people feel about the practice of profile hacking. We distinguish
between children who were victimized previously and those who did not. In order to understand the impact of profile hacking on young people’s wellbeing
in a more comprehensive way, we argue it is valuable to look at how children cope with the issue. Previous research suggests that children’s coping efforts
are related to their risk perceptions. Youth who feel more worried about online privacy risks will be less willing to provide personal information online, are
more likely to seek support or advice, and refrain from certain websites (Youn, 2009). Therefore, the second aim of this study is to find out which coping
strategies children prefer when confronted with profile hacking, and how these coping approaches are related to personal characteristics and social factors,
taking into account the intensity of harm. We conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses, drawing on a school survey that was administered
among 2,046 Flemish school children (aged 10 to 16) from October to December 2012. Data were collected on children’s personality and their relationship
with parents, teachers and peers. Additionally, we organized individual interviews with 39 Flemish children on how they (would) respond when confronted
with unpleasant situations online. About half of this group (n=19) are children with learning problems and/or behavioral problems. These qualitative data
helped us to interpret and contextualize the survey outcomes. Results indicate that girls and older teenagers are more sensitive about profile hacking,
particularly youngsters who feel insecure and have low self-efficacy. Previous experiences with profile hacking are not related to the intensity of harm.
Emotional support from parents, teachers or peers does not seem to protect children from feeling upset, but it is associated with a more communicative
coping style. In sum, this study was helpful in gettingmore insight in which kinds of children tend to struggle more with privacy risks such as profile hacking,
and in understanding why these children are more vulnerable.
Digital Culture and Communication
(DCC01–DCC20)