Find out how to monitor children and adolescents on networks – 07/08/2023 – Equilíbrio

“Profile monitored by parents”. You may have seen this phrase on some Instagram account. The wave of monitoring what children and teenagers do on the internet also applies to games, YouTube channels and streaming tools.

A survey by Opinion Box in partnership with Mobile Time, a platform for studies on the mobile industry, showed that 89% of parents manage what their children access on their cell phones and 26% use some content control tool.

The idea is well regarded by specialists, as long as it is accompanied by a lot of conversation. It also helps create protection around the risks that the internet offers, such as data leakage in financial fraud. A second danger is the collection of personal information for marketing strategies that target children’s engaging content in a personalized way while shaping their behavior.

SuperAwesome, a British company that helps application developers deal with children’s privacy, estimates that, up to the age of 13, a child will have around 72 million pieces of data distributed on the market.

For Luã Cruz, a researcher at the Telecommunications and Digital Rights program at Idec (Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection), it is necessary to explain to children that digital tools are not neutral.

Erick Luis Costa Nascimento, 12, was born into a generation integrated with new technologies. During the pandemic, he got his first cell phone, which is accessed remotely by parents through a Microsoft extension.

One of the guidelines given to the boy concerns the time of use, which is limited at home. “As we talked a lot about the subject, he obeyed our rules in a very conscious way”, says engineer Luis Paulo Finatti Nascimento, 61, Erick’s father.

The practice is consistent with WHO (World Health Organization) guidelines on the use of electronic devices among children. The entity contraindicates exposure to any type of screen up to 2 years old. From 2 to 5, the limit is one hour a day, and from 5 to 5, two hours a day are enough. Abuse can lead to neuropsychomotor problems and impact social interaction, says pediatrician Luci Pfeiffer, from SBP (Brazilian Society of Pediatrics).

Guardians should also take care of the content posted on public profiles and maintain close monitoring until the end of adolescence.

It is important to know, however, that supervision helps, but it is not enough, according to Ramon Costa, who is a member of NIC.br (Dot BR Information and Coordination Nucleus), created to implement CGI.br projects (Internet Management Committee in the Brazil).

For the specialist, the “close appointment” should complement a bond of trust and not be an isolated initiative, carried out in secret and in a threatening tone.

Children need to be aware of when and why they are being watched – all within a didactic context. “How will they know not to click on a cute pet ad if no one explains what spam is?” he says.

Monitoring children and adolescents is also important, as content published by them may end up in pedophile image banks, says the lawyer. It is also necessary to remember that seemingly harmless posts can become memes that mark a person’s life forever. Therefore, everything must be analyzed by adults.

Conversations in digital games, social networks and WhatsApp also demand increased attention. Cases where criminals attack children posing as harmless virtual friends are not uncommon. “The internet is not a world apart from reality. The ‘don’t talk to strangers’ rule that we use on a daily basis needs to be discussed at all times”, says Costa.

The subject becomes especially delicate when the child is a public figure and social networks become a kind of “portfolio”. This is the case of Lorena Queiroz, 12, who at the age of five starred in the soap opera Carinha de Anjo, on SBT.

The actress, who has more than 8 million followers on Instagram, has her profile managed by her mother, businesswoman Gabriela Queiroz, 35. Each content is analyzed before being posted and the girl does not have free access to messages that arrive over the network. Brother Enrico Queiroz, 9, also has his account, with 285,000 followers, and receives the same care from the person in charge.

“There are ‘haters’, fake profiles, people criticizing. It is important that we explain to our children to be careful with exposure, not everything needs to be said or shown”, he says.

Mother of child actress Clara Jordão, 8, businesswoman Tamara Jordão, 38, thinks the same way. She manages the girl’s Instagram, with more than 450,000 followers, and follows everything her daughter does on the internet. Conversations about the risks of the digital environment are also frequent. “Dialogue is the best way to keep your child out of harm’s way,” she points out.

Experts point out that control cannot be definitive and the final objective is the formation of safe, autonomous and reflective subjects. For this, one must take into account the progressive development of capacities, that is, what the child can access in each age group within their social context, according to Maria Mello, coordinator of Criança e Consumo, from Instituto Alana, an organization non-profit organization that works for children.

“Adults also need to be willing to learn while teaching”, adds Mello. “Our contact with the digital universe is also recent and we need to research, understand the tools in depth, to deliver this knowledge in a safe and careful way to our children”, she says.

10 tips for monitoring children and teenagers on the internet

1. There are tools that block keywords. In addition to using them to prevent access to inappropriate topics for each age group, you can talk to the child and teenager about each one of them, explaining why that subject is contraindicated, suggests Alana’s specialist.

two. Likewise, when curating open access content, say why one was prioritized over another and ask boys and girls how they feel about it.

3. If you are going to use a spy application, which gives remote access to another cell phone, prioritize tools from the device’s own operating system or from companies like Google and Microsoft, whose terms of use are “minimally transparent,” according to the Idec researcher.

4. Talk to them about the lack of neutrality of algorithms.

5. Limit screen time and access to social networks according to each age group. Instagram or Tiktok tools help to make this restriction.

6. Use social media services that allow you to integrate parent and child accounts, such as Instagram’s Family Center.

7. Base your decisions on scientific guidelines on the topic. Search and consult informative booklets from reliable organizations, such as NIC.br. The agency helped develop the “Safe Internet for Your Kids” guide, which can be accessed free of charge here.

8. Introduce the child to the digital universe gradually, taking into account what he can do in each age group. For example, the minimum age to open a personal account on Instagram or TikTok is 13 years old, already in adolescence.

9. When the time comes to open accounts on networks, prioritize closed profiles, follow each content posted, preventing the child from publishing details about his life, such as a photo in a uniform at the school door.

10. Do not use an authoritative tone with children and teenagers, or demonize the networks. “We need to protect them on the internet, not from the internet”, reinforces Maria.