With the arrival of summer , it is common for many children and minors to spend long days completely alone at home due to their holidays. Currently, in addition, the presence of devices such as smartphones, tablets, video game consoles and other electronic devices is increasing in homes, and in many cases they constitute their only company .
According to the Association for Media Research , children spend an average of five hours in front of a screen throughout the year . This time also increases in the summer when they are free from school and homework.
However, this is not a situation that is not due to parental ignorance. Parents' concern about their children's online behaviour curiously increases as the child grows up. In fact, the study 'Minors and the Internet: the pending issue for Spanish parents' prepared by Qustodio reveals that the level of parental concern reaches its highest level when children are between 9 and 14 years old .
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Qustodio , a digital security and wellbeing platform for families, has sought to address the most common concerns that parents generally have in this regard. To do so, they have analysed the 5 most common fears of Spanish parents regarding their children's use of the Internet:
1. Talking to strangers . From the age of 12, it is increasingly common for children to start conversations with other people through social networks, instant messaging platforms and even online video games. These are usually friends from class or extracurricular activities, but according to the Ministry of the Interior, at least a third of their contacts are complete strangers. Because of this, many parents are concerned about knowing who is really on the other side of the screen, and what their intentions may be.
2. Pornography . Under normal conditions, online pornography consumption begins, azerbaijan phone number on average, at the age of 14. However, there have been cases, and increasingly frequently, where the first contact begins at the age of 8, according to a study by the Youth and Social Inclusion Network and the University of the Balearic Islands . However, this contact is often not conscious or intentional, as there are many banners and pop-ups on the Internet containing this type of advertisement in video games or online players.
3. Violent content . Real scenes of violence often do not remain in the deepest recesses of the Internet. They often emerge very easily and without any kind of control, reaching even social networks accessible to children.
4. Gambling . Online gambling in Spain is prohibited for minors. Despite this, 20% of players were already gambling before reaching the age of majority, according to a report by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya . And it is not just the usual means such as casinos and sports betting . For this reason, the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling has warned that loot boxes, a mechanism used by many online video games to sell random rewards, can be considered as online gambling.
5. Viral challenges . jokes and threats have now adopted other formats, such as dangerous viral challenges that, when published on social networks, can lead to self-harm or suicide in minors. The famous “Blue Whale” challenge, for example, may seem absurd to an adult, but they are very dangerous for children, since they are much more easily influenced.
“Children are not as aware as adults about their use of the Internet, which can lead them to unpleasant or even dangerous situations,” says María Guerrero , a Qustodio expert psychologist . “In these days of so much free time, it is useless to prohibit them from accessing the Internet,” she continues, “so talking to them about these possible dangers, educating them and anticipating threats with management and control tools such as Qustodio are the best ways to ensure that children make good use of their devices.”