Parents of preschoolers’ usage of television program rating symbols and their protective ways from television

The aim of this study is detecting parent’s, who have 3-6 ages of children, knowledge and usage level of these systems, and their protective ways for TV. Research sample was formed by 130 mothers in qualiatative part of the study and 8 mothers in quantitative part of the study. In this study, which include both quantitative and qualitative methods, semi-structured interview form and survey were used. For the evaluation of qualitative data, ANOVA and t-test were used. The relationship between parents’ awareness level and program rating symbols usage level was revealed by correlation analysis. The evaluation of quantitative data was carried out with content analysis. Findings show that participants mostly know television content rating systems except symbol used for negative behaviours. Moreover, usage level and children guidance level of participants are generally high. Participant’s education level was the only effective variable of the study. Post hoc test showed that and their awareness and guidance level. After qualitative analyzes it is found that families use television on the purpose of entertainment and education. Parents thought that TV includes negative sample behaviors and parents protect their children from negative effects of TV by controlling their watching