The Future of Education

In today's society mobile technology is available to all, including young children ( Edwards, et al., 2018). Previous research shows that young children have difficulty in understanding the complexities of the internet (Yan, 2005, 2009). The internet has two basic properties, technical and social. Young children have difficulty in understanding the abstract relationship between social connections that occur through a device and the way that the internet allows one to communicate with a wide spectrum of people without having to be physically in their presence. The level of understanding was found to be age related ( Bordoff & Yan, 2017).
The present study investigated the level of young children's understanding of the use of mobile devices. 114 children between the ages of 5-18  were examined . The research was a mixed methods research based. The qualitative research was based on previous qualitative research by Yan (2005) and included three open questions, checked the children's understanding of the technical and social complexity of the internet. In addition the correlation between gender, age, the number of hours that the child  used the devices ,the number of years that the child was active in using the internet and  the parental boundaries concerning the daily use of the devices. 
The findings of the study showed that children have a very difficult time understanding the technical and social complexity of the internet. A clear correlation was found between the ability to understand and the child's age, so as the child's age increases, their understanding increases. In addition, it was found that even the children who were older have difficulties in understanding the social complexity of using the internet and the possibilities that the internet is not always a safe place to be. The study found that girls had a better understanding of the social complexity of the Internet. It is proposed to continue research on the topic of establishing intervention programs and parental mediation programs.

Keywords: Internet, Children, Understanding the Internet.

References:
[1] Edwards, S., Nolan, A., Henderson, M., Mantilla, A., Plowman, L.& Skouteris, H.(2018).Young children's everyday concepts of the internet: A platform for cyber‐safety education in the early years. British Journal of Educational Technology , 49 (1), p45-55, 11p.
[2] Bordoff, S., & Yan, Z. (2017). Understanding the technical and social complexity of the Internet: A cognitive developmental resource perspective. In F.C. Blumberg., & P.J. Brooks (Eds.). Cognitive Development in Digital Contexts. pp. 237-251.
[3] Yan, Z. (2005). Age differences in children's understanding of the complexity of the Internet. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 385-396.
[4] Yan, Z. (2009). Limited knowledge and limited resources: Children's and adolescents' understanding of the Internet. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30, 103-115.