Abstract:

Objective:In the present study, it was aimed to evaluate smartphone addiction, social media addiction, cyberbullying and cybervictimization in children dragged into crime who applied our outpatient clinic as forensic case. Methods:Subjects between the ages of 12-15, who were referred to our outpatient clinic by the judicial authorities between September 2019-July 2020, were included in this study. The subjects were given the Smartphone Addiction Scale, the Olweus Peer Bullying Scale, the Short Form of the Social Media Addiction Scale, the Cyberbullying and Internet Aggression Screening Scale(CBOASI). Results:Of the 45 cases included in the study, 35(77,8%) were male and 10(22,2%) were female. The most commonly commited crime was "fight / injury" with 28,9%. When the scores obtained from the Smartphone Addiction Scale were categorized as "low / medium / high", 62,2% were in the low, 24,4% in the medium and 4,4% in the high category. Social media addiction was found in only 2 (4,4%) of the cases. When the cases are evaluated in terms of peer bullying, it was found that 15,6% were victims, 8,6% were bullies, and 73,3% were neither victim nor bully. According to the CBOASI, 15,6% of the cases experienced cyber victimization and 8,9% had cyberbullying Conclusion:Large samples are needed to determine the relationships between smartphone addiction, social media addiction and cyberbullying and cybervictimization among children dragged into crime. Education should be given to both parents and teachers and students to ensure conscious use of technological tools such as phones and computers, internet security, cyberbullying and cyber crime awareness.

Keywords: