Investigation of Adolescents' Views on Children's Rights

Aim: “children's rights” is what children have since birth; race, language, religion, gender or social differences are the rights that you own and aim to protect the best interests of children. in this study, it is aimed to get the opinions of adolescents who continue their high school education as 9., 10., 11., and classes in keçiborlu district of isparta about “children's rights”. method: the study included 27 adolescents (15 girls, 12 boys) whose ages 14-17 continue their high school education in keçiborlu district of isparta. participation in the study was voluntary and was selected using the purposive sampling method. in order to realize the determined purpose of the study, interview form was used by using qualitative research methods and analyzed by content analysis method. results: students' views on the convention on the rights of the child are distributed as unknown (f:10), protecting children's rights (f:8), preventing violence (f:6) and providing educational and play opportunities (f:3). opinions about children's rights; “the rights of children (f:9), protecting children from negative situations (f:7), freedom and living (f:7) and unknown (f:4)”. opinions about whether children's rights differ from country to country; the answers were obtained as “it varies from country to country (f:18), children's rights are universal (f:7) and may vary but should not (f:2)”. what are the rights children need most? when asked, the answers were grouped as basic needs (f:14), education and play needs (f:12), emotional and social needs (f:11) and material needs (f:3). when asked about the problems regarding children's rights, “sexual abuse (f:8), physical abuse (f:7), child rights cannot be protected (f:7), children are not valued (f:5), and their rights are taken away from education and games (f:7), statements were obtained under the headings (f:4), verbal abuse (f:3) and unknown (f:3)”. their views on the solutions to the problems encountered were “educated (f:8), providing supervision (f:7), punishment (f:5), providing an atmosphere of love and respect (f:5) and unknown (f:4)” shows distribution. conclusion: considering the results obtained, it is seen that high school students do not have enough information about children's rights. it is considered important to inform adolescents about children's rights, to increase their awareness and to know the methods of protecting their rights.