How can we achieve a balance between search of balance childhood and screens and the relationship that children—our sons and daughters—have with technology? And what does that balance consist of ? Is the best solution to tell them not to use cell phones, the internet, or social media?
Age of mobile phone and internet use among minors
I spoke about these search of balance and many other topics at the “Childhoods and Screens” workshop organized by Faro Digital , a non-governmental organization dedicated to research and education on the thoughtful use of digital technologies among young people, based in Argentina and Spain.
During the session, we discussed several of the issues I also address in my book ” Social fax lists Networks and Minors: A Practical Guide ,” which are common when considering the search for balance in children’s digital education.
I’m leaving you a small excerpt here, and at the end of the post, the full video of the session with Faro Digital.
By the age of ten, one in four Spanish children have a mobile phone, and 87% use clean email the internet (because they also have access to a computer), according to the study ” Children’s Online Activities, Mediation, Opportunities, and who are the supervisors of young people on language stays? Risks ” prepared by EU KidsOnline (with data prior to the pandemic). By the age of 15, virtually all have their own mobile phone (94%), use the internet (98%), and use a computer (94%). Some frequently asked questions about these data are:
When should you start teaching them how to use technology?
When they start having contact with it, that is, as soon as search of balance possible. There’s no “starting age,” because technology, the digital environment, surrounds us (adults and children) in actions that are now everyday: when we buy a gift online, when we look up information on the internet, when we receive a message on WhatsApp.
Situations we can take advantage of to show our children how to detect if a website meets the security requirements for making an online payment, if a piece of news is fake or a hoax, or how to identify if a message we’ve received on WhatsApp is deceptive and intends to download malware when we click on it.