This is what parents do not know about the digital activity of their children

"The digital natives: do not confuse digital skills and criteria," says Juan Luis García Rambla, technology expert. Or, like his book Susana Lluna and Javier Pedreira "Wicho" title: "Digital natives do not exist". And yes, even if our children can manage the iPad with 2 years or manage the configuration of the Smart TV In our view, this does not mean that they can manage the technologies with absolute reasoning by baduming the pros and cons and knowing, therefore, to prevent the risks badociated with them. The role of the family in digital education therefore seems more than obligatory.

But how is the current technological landscape? According to the study conducted by the ADF, Google and BBVA among students aged 14 to 16 years and enrolled at different levels of ESO, the use of the "technological triad" underlines the smartphone compared to the rest, with 89.8% presence in households; in second place is the laptop, with 75.7%; and finally, the use of Tablet, with nearly 70% of mentions in surveys (68.8%).

The study also shows that the biggest activity of teens and young people concerns instant messaging applications, WhatsApp, Telegram or Line: 91% use them to chat or chat or to organize activities with their friends.

But if, in addition to studying what they use, we examine how they do it, we might realize that in many cases we are reaching what we may call "abusive or problematic use," as a report shows of the University. Camilo José Cela and the Madrid Health Addiction Institute: "The Internet is commonly used by 98% of 15-year-olds and only one-third do so in a non-problematic way." The remaining two-thirds do so knowing that they spend too much time browsing the Web and receiving complaints from their parents and / or friends, preventing them from reducing their time to stay or stay online someday. "

And, as the WHO had predicted in 2018, the inclusion of video games in the International Clbadification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a pathological gambling or gambling addiction, l & # 39; non-responsible use of technologies by minors could increase exponentially.

Given these data, when we talk about "minors and screens", we have to think about what we call parental mediation, under which those responsible for the education of the child have the legal and moral obligation to educate also in the field of new technologies. technologies, including as part of the general education we provide to the minor.

This is explained by the expert lawyer in digital law, Borja Adsuara, who insists on the general duty of care of the minor: to ensure its good physical and mental development.

The minor's parents or guardians should support him in his digital literacy process, educate him / her to a responsible and safe use of new technologies and ensure that ICT risks materialize and, if they do occur, to propose solutions.

But are we really ready to educate our children numerically? As the data points out, WhatsApp, Instagram and Youtube are the apps most used by teens and young people. According to one study, the average daily use is 1.24 hours per day. Fortnite, with its more than 250 million users, has absolutely broken all video game statistics.

There is also another series of platforms, more unknown to families, for which children are navigating with much less control, such as Tik Tok, Ask, Twitch or This Crush. And although, according to the study The impact of screens on family life of Empantallados.com, 38.6% of parents are satisfied with their degree of knowledge of technology. Sometimes, reality makes us aware that the knowledge of applications and platforms is not as great as it should be to guide and accompany minors in the use of these.

Above all, because the main concerns of families today, as shown by the Empantallados.com survey, are the over-exposure of minors on the Internet (and its consequences) and their misuse.

We all know that Fortnite Battle Royale is a game of Epic Games, where the features of The hunger Games and MinecraftWith positive aspects like learning to work in teams and collaborating intelligently, participants must remain the only survivors of an island in front of a hundred competitors.

There is no blood or violence, but battles are not won with poetry, of course. Now, do we all know that Fortnite has a 12 year PEGI code? What if our kids play alone in squadron mode, they can chat live with any stranger from around the world? Have they ever sat down to play? with their kids to see how they play? so that they can explain what's a battle? That's the key.

We know that Tick Tock is an application that lets you download recorded videos with background music to create karaoke, dubbed movies, tutorials or tricks. We do not allow our youngest children to have a public profile and we review the videos they record before publishing them for their friends.

However, do we know that even if they have a closed profile, they can access all public Tik Tok videos where they can see content that is not recommended for their age (you can also configure privacy and overlay it), did you download Tik Tok? your mobile? Have you sailed the app? In this way, they can decide if their daughter or son is old enough or not to start using it.

It is clear that Snapchat is a very fun application in which you can take photos with filters, geotag them and record videos that, once sent, self-destruct in seconds. Many of our children only use it to use their filters. But we are aware that many teenagers use it to do badting? And that although Snapchat has introduced the update to tell us if someone has made a screenshot of the photo or recorded the video, the damage is already done and everyone can use that content to blackmail or do cyberbullying minors ?, or that many people use the network to sell badgraphic content, which may vary striptease to much more explicit videos?

Although the legal age in Spain for minors to be present on social networks is 14 years (some platforms set it to 16 years, as is the case of WhatsApp), giving the children the same age. authorization to process data and receive advertising content (RGPD), having conducted discussions on the Internet and social networks with students aged 6th to 2nd year ESO in different schools of Spanish geography, of children under 11 and 12, almost 70% had smartphone and, of them, many already had profiles in networks like Instagram or YouTube (some with parental controls and many others, no).

For all these reasons, supporting minors during digital learning to teach them how to use technologies safely is essential, as the journalist María Zabala points out in her blog iWomanish, and must always be adapted to the age of the child.

It is not a matter of banning or censoring, because we already know that this strategy is not effective, but to guide and educate them. Since the installation of the apps by explaining to them what kind of content they should download on the network and what they should not, how they should take care of their privacy and that of the family, even why they should not interact with unknown people .

And as they grow, they will learn to take advantage of the safe Internet. You will find below the counter counter tag of The Conversation. Please DO NOT REMOVE. End of the code. If you do not see any code above, please get the new code from the Advanced tab after clicking the Republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More information: http://theconversation.com/es/republishing-guidelines

Laura Cuesta Cano, responsible for communication and digital education in the PAD service. Professor Camilo José Cela University