Abstract:

Aim: People struggle with COVID-19 on all over the world last year and the time people spend at home has increased due to pandemic. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between cyber victimization and COVID-19 pandemic in children. Material and Methods: The data consist of 104 mother and child who answered the scales with the help of the online environment by Google questionnaire method. Participants were asked to fill in the socio-demographic form, the Parent-Child Internet Addiction Test, the Cyber victimization scale, the Parental Monitoring Instrument. This study was approved by the ethics committee of Düzce University Faculty of Medicine clinical studies ethics committee. Results: In this study a statistically significant weak correlation was found between the age of female gender and the cyber victimization scale (r: 0.308, p = 0.028). Having a social media account is statistically significantly associated with Cyber victimization scores (p = 0.002). When the relationships of the scales with each other was evaluated, it was found that there was a statistically significant positive weak relationship between the Parent- Child Internet Addiction Test and the CVS scores (r = 0.248 p = 0.011). There is a statistically significant positive weak correlation between both Parent- Child Internet Addiction Test and Cyber victimization scores and restrictive follow-up (r=0,327 p=0,019; r=0,345 p=0,019). Conclusion: Internet addiction and cyber victimization are rapidly increasing among children. Older age and having a social media account seem to be risk factors for cyber victimization. Families should follow up children closely and inform their children about harm of excessive use of internet in these ages.