Statistics indicate that The majority of children and adolescents have access to the Internet - many of them through the mobile phone -, and that 82.5% connect daily, the majority without previous information and without having installed the suitable programs for a safe navigation.
Both requirements would be necessary (information and safe navigation), and even more so when children with nine and 10 years (sometimes before) They have profiles in Social Networks (and not precisely those that adjust the content to their ages).
It is the first time in the history of mankind that the youngest know more than adults about a specific subjectThe previous one is a phrase from Dr. María Salmerón, during the last congress of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics. And he who should become a point of union ('son, explain to me how you edit the videos of your musical group because I want to record my lecture'), it often becomes a huge chasm that places parents who don't know about children's adventures on the Internet at one extreme, and in the other minors who share photos, are left to go out, but also who harass.
And it's not like I'm saying that teenagers' lives should be an 'open book' for their families, is that I talk about younger children. Guys and girls who make it a game to talk about the teachers innocently, or make fun of that boy who wanders in the yard just because he has no one to play with.
Our young people were born in the technological era but have not had, in many cases, a previous education in the good use of the Internet, nor do they know their risks. They know how to use the tool, but they don't know how to do it safely. That one day a professional goes to school when explaining how to safely use the Internet, is a partial solutionWhat do parents do about it?
Would we know how to detect that our child has problems due to misuse of the Internet?
On other occasions, we have discussed this issue, and I would like to highlight the need to understand some of the characteristics of cyberbullying, and the recommendations for action against cyberbullying or grooming.
Apparently, there is no 'harassed child syndrome' and in each case the manifestations can be very diverse.
The first thing parents can notice are changes in your children's habits: in the use of mobile devices or the Internet, repeated absences to class, absence in preferred activities up to that time, decrease in academic performance with decrease in the ability to concentrate, changes or disappearance of friendships ... Also changes in the mood or the appearance of symptoms such as insomnia, headache or abdominal pain of recent onset and without apparent cause.
When the harassment occurs in the online environment, the so-called cyberbullying, The main problem is the greater suffering in the victims, as the object of mockery or aggression remains in the virtual environment and increases the audience that has access to the damage that produce attacks by aggressors, causing an increased risk of mood disorder and suicide.
To this is added the false sense of impunity and anonymity that the aggressor has on the Internet and the difficulty in detecting cyberbullying, in what the so-called 'digital divide' greatly influences.
Pediatricians believe that parents should be trained in the online environment and in the security measures that exist to protect the devices connected to the internet - and thus, to be able to control the activity of their children and their virtual relationships -, in addition to transmitting them that in the Virtual life must govern the same rules of coexistence and respect for the other as in real life
Effective measures to prevent problems
Any change of habits in the use of new technologies, the feeling of noticing that 'it is different, and more if it is linked to some physical symptom, is a warning that something is not going well
To avoid it, the ideal is know what the child does when connected, install a good anti virus, a fire breaker and a parental control program. Likewise, it is convenient to dose the time of use, to have the computer in a common place, to control the use of webcam, and that, for example, if our child uses email does it from a family account; If you have social networks, let the parents be one of your friends ...
We must also take into account that it's not just about avoiding cyberbullying. More frequent than him are technical risks, screen addiction, loss of privacy, phishing, access to inappropriate content and economic fraud.
Definitely, healthy habits should be promoted from the family, school and health. And in this sense, pediatricians also have an important role: primary prevention that is to prevent a problem with ICTs and secondary prevention that is the early detection of a case.
It is not about forbidding but of educating, just like crossing a street, explains Dr. Salmerón. An education that must begin as soon as the children begin to make contact with the new technologies, at 2-3 years of age, and adapt these norms according to the age
