Abstract:

Based on social life experiences, tablets and mobile phones have become part of the everyday lives of adults and children, and children interact with these technological tools over the day. This also encourages researchers to do research on the issue of children’s use of digital technologies in various dimensions. Parents’ opinions are especially important in the identification of the conditions of the use of digital technology by children in the pre-school period. The study aimed at studying parents’ opinions about the use of tablets and mobile phones in children. The study was conducted on 55 parents of 5-6-year-old children living in the KKTC. For the purpose of obtaining the data of the research conducted in accordance with the quality research method, a semi-configured conversation method was made face-to-face with the parents. Research results showed that about half of parents did not control their children’s time during using digital technology, while 20% did not control their content. The reasons for children’s use of digital technologies have arisen for play, entertainment, educational and artistic purposes. 76% of the families say they’ve been directing their children to digital technology from time to time for a variety of reasons. The circumstances in which parents direct their children to digital technologies have been identified as the ability to control negative behavior for educational purposes, and the reward for positive behavior, respectively. Approximately half of the families have been positively assessed by the effects of their children’s use of digital technology for reasons such as providing educational support, adapting to the digital age and ensuring them to stay well. 72% of parents said they could have negative effects such as lack of socialization, negative behavior modeling, risk of addiction, eye health problems, lack of movement, negative effects on mental development and negative effects on language development.

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