In recent decades we have witnessed a real boom in the development of new technologies, in which the Internet and mobile devices have played a leading role; and whose irruption and expansion has meant a radical transformation in the paradigm of communication and the way we relate to each other. Technology has changed our lives, sometimes imperceptibly, but inexorably forever.
Living with them has become a particularly complicated challenge for parents and children, because in their infinite potential lies a fundamental paradoxical concept: “everything that is infinite by definition, has no end or limits”.
And in this field in particular, a profitable use of them inevitably involves being very clear about what the end is and where the limit is. But it also means assuming that the fact that our children and adolescents are “digital natives” does not necessarily imply that they know how to make responsible and healthy use of these technologies. It is largely up to us and the education system to provide children with the necessary digital skills to navigate safely in a world that offers endless opportunities, while at the same time entailing certain dangers.
Protecting children in the virtual world
Just as we teach them to recognize and avoid the dangers of the real world, we should also be able to teach them about the dangers of the virtual world. Children should learn from an early age that just as we don’t go hanging intimate photos of our private lives on the street or outside the school gates, we shouldn’t do it on the Internet either. Or that just as we close the front door of our house and do not open it to strangers, we should be able to create secure passwords or configure different privacy options on social networks.
Because learning to judge things by their content and essence, and not by how pretty, expensive or elaborate the packaging that contains it looks, is a sign of maturity. Maturity that our children and teenagers do not have, and therefore we have to cultivate and help them develop as parents. In exactly the same way that we take care not to store cleaning products in soft drink bottles -because of the risk of being accidentally consumed by the child-, or that we restrict access to medicines or toxic products so that children do not ingest them thinking they are candy; we must control that the contents of web pages and the information they access are appropriate to their age and maturity level.
In short, we must be able to instill in them from a very young age two basic precepts of coexistence in society: “every action has the potential to generate a consequent reaction (either positive or negative), and “what you don’t want for yourself, don’t want for others”. The only way we can protect our “digital children and adolescents” is by being able to establish clear rules and lead by example.
Our main challenge? To make our children responsible and autonomous people, with sufficient criteria to be able to make an intelligent and mature use of new technologies.
Our main means? Basically, coherence and balance between the model of use of the technologies with which we want to educate our children, the use that we as adults make of them, and the actions that we carry out on a daily basis.