A group of experts supported by the Barcelona Medical Association calls for the first use of smartphones by children: Postponed until age 16.
The document emphasizes the need to “protect” children from “harmful uses of technology” through a series of recommendations aimed at authorities, businesses and families.
Experts have made it clear they don’t want to do that, but “demonize“On social media, we are calling on operators to take responsibility for protecting children.
“Childhood and adolescence are critical periods of brain development and require special protection and attention,” the document states.
The main recommendation for parents is to delay giving their children a smartphone until they are 16 years old. If you need to communicate, basic phone Instead of a smartphone.
When it comes to schools, experts support banning smartphones and encouraging the creation of phone-free spaces during school periods. play timemealtimes, school trips.
It also calls on the education sector to take steps to reduce social pressure around the age when children get their first mobile phone, and to increase lessons on digital literacy.
Among other measures, we require businesses to provide the following services: Wi-Fi for childrenwith pre-enabled filters for dangerous content.
In January, the Catalan government announced a ban on the use of mobile phones in primary schools for children aged 6 to 12, and for educational purposes in secondary schools for children aged 12 to 16.
The ban went into effect this year, but parents who had advocated for a complete ban on children under the age of 16 expressed skepticism.
In fact, the main reason this new measure was enacted was because parents opposed to early cell phone use formed a Telegram group.
If you want to learn more about this issue, listen to this episode of the podcast Filling the Sink.
