The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) and the Atresmedia Foundation have joined forces to raise awareness about the dangers of minors accessing inappropriate content via mobile phones and to promote support for the use of technology in childhood and adolescence.
To this end, both entities are launching the campaign‘No to the digital free bar’with the aim of recommending that families delay giving their children mobile phones and accompany them in their interaction with the digital world, thus preventing them from accessing inappropriate content that is harmful to their development, such as pornographic or violent content, among others.
In this context, the CEO of Atresmedia and patron of the Atresmedia Foundation, Javier Bardají, and the director of the AEPD, Mar España, highlight the importance of having adult support in the use of technology, as well as the risks that social networks can represent for the mental health of children and young people, agreeing on the need to provide minors with the necessary skills to face these digital challenges and remembering that a safe digital environment is everyone’s responsibility.
“All families, regardless of socioeconomic or cultural factors, have experienced or will experience what it means to give a mobile device to their children, and it is necessary to address the relationship between technology, childhood, hyperconnection and exposure to inappropriate content. It is difficult for a child to self-regulate, because, on their own, they do not have sufficient tools to manage it, just as they would not be able to manage the situations reflected in this campaign. That is why we consider it essential to delay the delivery of the mobile phone and, when the time comes to give it to them, to address the issue as a family, through dialogue and support,” said Mar España, director of the Spanish Data Protection Agency.
“Large technology companies have originally designed social networks optimized to capture us for as long as possible, at the expense of our mental health and well-being, and even more seriously, at the expense of the mental health of our children and young people. It is imperative to point out and denounce the responsibility of large technology companies as the main disseminators of fake news, polarization, violence, pornography, gambling… At the Atresmedia Group we have a clear commitment to this cause, we will always be part of the solution and not the problem. We are a trustworthy medium” said Javier Bardají, CEO of the Atresmedia Group and patron of the Atresmedia Foundation.
Both entities, leaders in the promotion of a safe digital environment and committed to the protection of children and adolescents, remind us that, although young people show great skill in using applications, searching for content and browsing, they are not always aware of the risks involved in these actions. Family supervision and guidance is essential, especially when they are given their own mobile phone at an early age.
‘No to the digital free bar’ reinforces the idea that allowing minors early and unrestricted access to screens is opening the door to risks that can impact their well-being. Thus, the spot visualizes this problem through striking images: a boy alone at an American bar and a girl in a betting shop, accompanied by a clear and direct message: “If you wouldn’t let your son or daughter be alone in a place like this…, don’t leave them alone in the digital world either. Delay giving your sons and daughters their mobile phone and accompany them in its use.”
According to data shared by Arturo Béjar, former head of Protection at Meta, in the special of ‘Salvados’ on laSexta, ‘Social networks, the factory of terror’, 1 in 8 children is sexually harassed on Instagram every 7 days; 1 in 5 feels worse about themselves after using the platform, and 1 in 10 is bullied on it every week. These data support the importance of supervised and safe use of technology during childhood and adolescence, the central focus of the initiative by the Atresmedia Foundation and the AEPD.
The campaign, which is broadcast from this Thursday under the hashtag #Noalabarralibredigital, will be broadcast on all television channels of the Atresmedia Group: Antena 3, laSexta, Nova, Neox, Mega and Atreseries, and on their multimedia supports, as well as on theWeb pageand social networks of the AEPD and theWeb pageand the social networks of the Atresmedia Foundation.