Online privacy awareness and cyber victimization among university students in Türkiye: A social work perspective

As young people's digital engagement intensifies, their exposure to cyber victimization has emerged as a significant concern for social work practice. This study examines the relationship between online privacy awareness and cyber victimization among undergraduate students in Türkiye using a cross-sectional quantitative design. Data were collected from 560 undergraduate students via an online survey. Descriptive analyses revealed low mean levels of cyber victimization and moderate-to-high overall online privacy awareness, with the communication and sharing subscale yielding the highest mean and the security subscale the lowest. Female students demonstrated significantly higher privacy awareness than male students, particularly in the communication and sharing dimension. Senior students reported significantly higher cyber victimization than freshmen and juniors. Daily internet use and social media use were positively associated with cyber victimization and negatively associated with security-oriented privacy awareness. Spearman correlation analyses indicated a significant negative association between overall online privacy awareness and cyber victimization (r = -0.12, p < .01), with the communication and sharing subscale showing the strongest association (r = -0.30, p < .001), whereas the attention and security subscales yielded no significant correlations. These findings suggest that the relationship between online privacy awareness and cyber victimization is limited in magnitude and is more closely associated with communication and sharing practices than with attention or security-related awareness. From a social work-oriented perspective, the findings highlight the importance of educational and preventive interventions that promote rights-based digital literacy and safer online participation.