Your son just turned 9 years old. Get ready because the safest thing is not to take long to say: «Mom, dad: I want a mobile». Then, the “panic” seizes the elderly. “No” is the first answer. “Why not? My friends have a cell phone, ”replies the minor. start, then, a “battle” that the parents will extend as long as they can in time knowing that they will not win.
“You have to start at home to train the little ones,” he explains to ABC Anna Santosresponsible for the Internet Security Office (OSI), which from Thursday to Sunday has been in León teaching minors what is the internet, privacy, what they should and should not do on the netwithin cyber camp 2016.
«At home and with the tablet or the computer, parents have to start guiding their minors. It is essential that they feel comfortable with their parents taking those first steps on the internet because that way, when they have doubts or come across something that bothers them, they will turn to them”, explains the expert.
According to the INE, half of Spanish children aged 11 have a mobile phone (50.9%). At 12, 73% of minors have their own smartphone. Parents therefore have a very important job.
«And the teachers too» adds Santos. OSI works closely with teachers, who train in cybersecurity so that they acquire the necessary skills and can give workshops to their students. In this sense, Laura Villastrigoa teacher at the El Campo Infant and Primary School in León, one of the centers whose students have participated in the Cybercamp 2016 children’s workshops, adds: “Although we teachers dedicate ourselves to teaching curricular subjects, the reality is that cybersecurity on the Internet is the order of the day and we must have certain knowledge although, for the time being, the training we receive is very little».
But, in the end, education starts from the family nucleus. And just as a minor is educated so that, for example, he knows that it is wrong to kick a wastebasket, It must be explained that they should not trust excessively what is found on the internet, nor upload videos or photos that could compromise them or make comments that discredit a person.to.
«you have to form», insists the expert. Minors cannot live outside the new technologies. “The problem,” he continues, “is that we are facing a generation of parents who have been taken by surprise by the internet, they are not trained and they are overwhelmed». Thus, they are unaware of such basic and fundamental concepts as privacy, parental control or backup. “And it is very difficult to ask parents who have no training to teach minors. That’s why school is important there. In a couple of decades, it will be different,” says Santos. In this sense, Villastrigo agrees: «Parents show their concern for what their children do, but many others do not show it due to ignorance».
This is one of the reasons why parents panic when they find out that their child has an Instagram or Facebook account. «All social networks have a minimum age of use to be able to use them autonomously: 14 years. Therefore, below that age, no child should have a profile without the guardianship of the parents, “says the expert.
If a parent is unaware that their child is using Snapchat, “it’s a serious thing that shouldn’t happen. And if you give them permission to have Instagram, it’s up to the parents to install the app, set up privacy, and give them guidelines on what not to upload.” From OSI they insist on being cautious when publishing a photograph. always have to ask permission when posting images in which others appear, but when they are minors, the matter is complicated: «If a child uploads a photo of another, they may be incurring a legal problem and a parent can report the other because their child has uploaded a snapshot of a minor without your permission.”
To avoid these situations, OSI makes a parental mediation guide available to parents so that they know how to help their children to access the Internet in a controlled manner. Many tips and tools await parents on this website whose service is indispensable. «Parents have to learn to guide their children to enter the Internet and build trust with them. If they do not put their batteries, there will come a time when the situation gets out of hand and then they will be overwhelmed».
And it is that children are digital natives. «They learn very quickly to use technology but you have to teach them these other things. We, from a very early age, emphasize what is the privacy, safety and respect for others» adds Santos. “It is true that they have knowledge of new technologies, but initiatives like Cybercamp are great for them because they acquire knowledge of a field that they are completely unaware of: security. Many students create meaningless accounts on the internet, ”says the teacher at the Leonese center.
Proof of this is Adela, a student at the El Campo School of Early Childhood and Primary Education, for whom Cybercamp is “very cool”. «They have taught me to put secure passwords so that no one, from another device, can take it away from me and see my private things», says the 10-year-old girl. “I haven’t told anyone the password,” she adds.
And it’s not all about behavior. Minors are also unaware of the tools that can be very useful to surf the Net safely. «They must also be taught what to use so that the mobile does not get infected with viruses, how to recognize a false web page or the importance of configuring secure passwords». A lesson that Adela, for now, already knows.
