The kids are hooked up for hours. They lock themselves in their rooms to chat or face long video game challenges. Difficult to stop them, because they don’t seem to want to listen to adults. The confinement in the home, physical distancing, distance learning, have increased the disturbances that were already present among the youngest before the arrival of the pandemic.
More hours have been spent in front of devices and the age in which access to the network has decreased. But we live in a hyper-connected society and it’s not fair to demonize technology. You have to learn how to use it the right way. Correct digital awareness is needed, so that adults and children understand the potential and risks associated with the web. What can parents do to consciously guide their children? According to experts, it is important to lead by example, but in order to do so, they must have the right tools at their disposal.
L’app
But there are also tools that can be useful. The OkDigitale app was born from an idea developed in synergy between the Di.Te. National Association, the Faculty of Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Marche (DII) and the University of Macerata (SPOCRI). a path of accompaniment to the conscious use of devices, aimed at both parents and children. The goal is to acquire information, suggestions and ideas useful to promote digital education for the correct use of the smartphone and its applications.
Adolescence, science confirms: “Smartphones are bad for our children’s health”
by Giuseppe Lavenia *
“Often the parent does not know the online life of their children and their habits, making the possibility of opening a relationship of trust in the parent-child relationship even more complex. It is therefore essential to teach children and adolescents to have a healthy relationship. with the smartphone, speaking openly about the dangers that lie behind an incorrect use of technological devices – explains the professor Giuseppe Lavenia, university professor, psychologist and psychotherapist, president of the National Di.Te. (Technological Addictions and Cyberbullying). -. The danger is not the tool itself, but an unconscious use “.
Video intimi on line
According to the latest data from Censis, Italians are aware that the web hides dangers from which we must protect ourselves. 54.3% associate the increased use of the web with risks related to IT security while carrying out banking operations, work activities, online purchases. 43.1% are concerned about minors’ free internet access. 27.6% fear for mental health and the risks of addiction that can arise due to overexposure to the web and social networks. 22.6% fear haters, professional haters who, taking advantage of anonymity, insult people on social networks.
Parents, go online to protect your children from the dark side of social media
by Giuseppe Lavenia
From the latest data of a study by the National Di.Te. Association, conducted in collaboration with the Skuola.net portal on a sample of 3,115 students aged between 11 and 19, it emerges that more than 10% of young people have seen your own intimate video circulated online. “We are talking about children, for the most part, minors in an age group that shouldn’t even have a cell phone. It is clear that the first to take this situation in hand must be the parents. It is precisely from them that greater awareness on the issue must start, and digital education. Our app aims to be a guide both for those parents looking for help to understand the dynamics of the digital world of their children, providing them with useful information and tools to encourage a correct use of smartphones, both for children and enter the online world. In fact, the app allows you to receive a daily pill containing different suggestions, ideas and information to become a ‘digital parent’ “, adds Lavenia.
Tips for guiding the guys
How does the App work? It allows you to receive a daily pill containing different tips, ideas and information. The contents will be usable according to a 10-week calendar, in which the notifications will allow the user to know if there are new contents to be viewed and tests to be filled in to continue along the certification path. At the end of each week, a verification test can be taken to ascertain the skills previously acquired. Upon passing all the tests, a certificate of “digital license” will be issued together with instructions for agreeing and sharing the rules with the children in order to be able to deliver the first personal smartphone to the children.
Pellai: “Children’s intelligence can be cultivated: here’s how
by Valeria Pini
Families involved
“Limiting the use of technology on the basis of standardized age groups risks not being the right way – explains the professor Emanuele Frontoni, researcher and professor in the field of Artificial Intelligence. With this app, the predisposition of children to a particular game or device will no longer depend on their age, but on their digital age, that is, on their predisposition to technology. This app brings into play the whole family, from parents, the first to be an example and to guide their children towards the right digital awareness, to children. They will be the protagonists who, thanks to their answers, will make it possible to create the first database on a European scale linked to digital awareness. Furthermore, the data collected will also allow us to monitor real changes over the years to come “.
The videogame ‘ally’ of emotions, for 30% of young people calms and helps to reach goals
by Valeria Pini
The App is free and available for both Android and IOS. The path consists of several steps through which adults can deepen their knowledge on the most used apps. And, at the end of each week, tests will be made available to users to be filled in to verify what they have learned, to verify the skills previously acquired. Upon passing all the tests, a certificate of “digital parent” will be issued together with the indications to agree and share the rules with the son / daughter to be able to deliver the first personal smartphone.
Videos and books
It is also important to know the web to combat web addiction. Books written by experts who know the mechanisms underlying these disorders are also useful. In the book: ‘All too soon. Our children’s sex education in the age of the Internet ‘ (De Agostini), Alberto Pellai again deals with one of the thorniest challenges that parents and educators today face: the relationship between sexuality and new technologies, and the skills adults need to take care of digital well-being boys. Another topic dealt with is that of the problems caused by the abuse of video games, now very widespread among young people.
Among other recent texts on the risks of the web: ‘Internet addiction. Cognitive styles and new criticalities in learning ‘by Anita Gramigna. The book contains an analysis on how much this digital revolution has brought new criticalities in the learning processes in recent years in all grades of compulsory school. Federico Tognoni, who has been driving a clinic at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome for years, has instead published: ‘Web-mediated psychopathology: Internet addiction and new dissociative phenomena’ (Italian Edition), a manual intended for specialists that also contains advice for families.
The theme of network security and literacy is also the common thread of a video by Corecom Lazio, which explains the risks to young people because it helps prevent dangerous situations. A commercial that teaches a fundamental rule: avoid giving friendship online to people who do not know each other in real life.
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