An Evaluation of the Problems Encountered by Elementary School Students While Using Internet

Abstract

Today, as a result of the development of technology and the resulting innova-tions, it can be seen that internet applications and software are widely used by large masses starting from very small age groups to adults by means of comput-ers and mobile devices. This wide and popular usage presents several living op-portunities to its users but it also brings to fore the question “how effective and accurate are we using internet and its applications?” The state of awareness of children as regards “accurate and conscious internet usage” who particularly widely use products such as computers and mobile devices appears as an im-portant research question. In light of this information, the purpose of the research is to determine the problems faced by 5th grade students while using the internet. The Interview technique which is a qualitative method is used in the study and the sample group consists of 5th grade students (103 pupils) who study at a private elementary school in Northern Cyprus chosen by convenience (accidental) sam-pling. The research employed a semi-structured interview form developed by re-searchers as data collection tool. According to the obtained results, it has been found that elementary school students encountered problems in topics related to the usage of social networks, computer viruses and relevant measures, and re-search processes on the internet.