This week the conclusions of the report have been presented 'Adolescents and Social Media: 4 generations of the new millennium'. We have known that 27% of adolescents use the Internet to insult, and that up to 19% launch threats through the Internet.
The study states that we cannot consider the existence of the Internet and its Social Networks to be the cause of violence, so prevention campaigns should focus on 'foster relationships' instead of warning about the risks. I like this approach very much, but I would advocate adopting it while protecting our children so that they do not become victims of unacceptable behaviors on the Internet, and that we educate them to use the different devices in a healthier way.
José Antonio Ruiz San Román of the Complutense University of Madrid states that 'life is full of relationships with strangers. The important thing is to know who and how to interact with '.
The report has been promoted by the Spanish Confederation of Educational Centers, and has the support of the European Commission. Be part of a campaign to reduce the use and exposure to violence on the web by minors, since it has been detected that 42% of them spend more than three hours surfing the internet through Social Networks, although only 14% have an active participation generating content through blogs or uploading videos.
In the words of Reynaldo Rivera (CEO of Intermedia Consulting, an organization that has participated in the research): 'an inversely proportional relationship has been calculated between the number of hours teenagers spend socializing through the internet and their ability to interact in a way normal and establish friendship ties in the offline world '
Parental control is different when it comes to the real or virtual world: 65% of teenagers have parents who supervise their leisure time activities and care about studies. On the other hand, figures close to 50% do not control the time children navigate, they do not give them advice about it and they do not see the same content as they do on television.
In Rivera's opinion Behind the exposure to violence and other risk behaviors is the lack of intergenerational dialogue (60% of respondents never talk to their parents, almost never). And it is that the 'lack of family life' generates citizens disconnected from society 'who do not know how to discern what content is adequate or not'.
The study shows that both parents and teachers must become allies to educate children in the use of the network. The lack of education about the use of the network that children receive at school is criticized.
In addition to the previous conclusions, 17.1% of the adolescents asked have confessed that they consume pornography, which after knowing that parents do not supervise their children's performance on the Internet
Finally, I want to highlight the dichotomy observed when children intend to act at a personal level in a way, and then at a social level they behave differently. But this is not something that is observed only in children, since adults also do it.
In the specific case of the report we are talking about now, 56% of the adolescents who were asked would sign a manifesto against violence, and 30.4% would support laws that limit violent content in the media. And this although 54.7% are justifying it to achieve personal goals.
I think it is necessary that let's reflect on how our children use the Internet, about our family relationship, and that we think about what kind of messages society sends them; and then decide if we are interested in intervening from an educational point of view.
Images | "PictureYouth", Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com More information | Safe Social Media In Peques and More | If it were produced on the Internet ... would it be cyberbullying ?, Decalogue of the National Police of Spain for kids who use tablets and mobile phones
