Would you say whatsapp is for children? In truth, the messages through this social network replace some of the teenagers' face-to-face conversations (even when they are physically together); and it is also true that they use it to maintain contact with their peers, or share messages / images. That is, regardless of what we think, already part of their lives.
Theoretically it is not bad to maintain your relationships, or have fun using the smartphone (as long as it does not replace or predate real life). And yet there are some associated dangers: the main one is the inability to separate from the terminal, 'in case another whatsapp arrives', or to be up to date, with the loss of the 'own life' plot that this implies. Not counting that you easily lose hours of sleep. In addition, according to Guillermo Cánovas (president of Protégeles), the misuse of a tool aimed at facilitating personal and social relationships, it can distort the meaning of. And this is because in some cases it is used to harass, threaten, spread slander, photographs without authorization. In fact, many children who start Secondary (and have a telephone for the first time) are face harassment through whatsapp from the first weeks of the course.
But if we believed that they are all the potential problems that we can attribute to this mobile application, I must tell you (because being informed is the best we can do) that whatsapp is the most used system in cases of sexting.
At the end of this year a study by the Protégeles Security Center will be published, and in advance of its results, these days we have been able to read that 76% of children aged 11 to 14 routinely use the tool we are talking about (from your own smartphone, or using your parents'). Do adults know or do children know how useful it is to our personal information? , we say this because Whatsapp is not required the same responsibilities as other social networks, and its security is not comparable to these.
Even so, we must be aware that “we misuse it,” says Pere Cervantes, co-author of “Tranki pap @ s”. Because how many adults review the whatsapp dozens of times a day even without having heard the sound of message input? How many of us have used groups to disseminate information that is not relevant to the interests of the group? to your WhatsApp contacts with bad ways? So, let's start by setting an example.
Namely: "Whatsapp" is ...
You have a son of 11, 12, 13, 14 years old and you are going to buy him a smartphone (because two days a week he goes to the academy after the insti), he wants to download the application (“if they all have it”… he doesn't you're going to deny the evidence right?) There are things you should know,
Whatsapp is a social network. It is not a simple messaging service, as some parents believe, allows groups, send images, videos, links…. However, it is not registered as such and this causes is under low pressure and that its safety is not as accurate.
Age. According to Spanish legislation, a child with less than 14 years cannot authorize someone to obtain their personal data. Nor can you authorize your photographs to be obtained. This can only be done with the prior authorization of the parents. That is to say, The authorizations granted by children under 14 are not valid ... but in WhatsApp yes. Therefore, by automatically registering in the application, the children provide their name, their photo, their geolocation ... and from there everything they can think of to share with their groups of friends.
The question of immediacy is extremely delicate, and it is very easy that if one acts so quickly they are wrong and don't make good decisions.
What happens with all that information? What about all those messages, more private and less private, that children exchange with each other? What happens to the photographs that are taken and sent to each other? Can anyone access them? No one knows where what is shared goes. It is not known if Whatsapp saves a backup copy of all sent and received data, It is one of the most demanded security features of the service.
May facilitate bullying. The experts of Friendly Screens assure that the fact that anyone has our phone recorded already exposes the profile picture, without counting that they access data as if we are not contacted or the time of the last message. Unless it is known to hide part of the information.
But there is also the possibility that your child is between eight and 10 years old, what might he need the phone for? Is there a lot of temporary space in which you are without adult supervision? Is it that when you have time to go for a walk with your classmates, you can't leave yours for an hour? And on the other hand, do older children need a mobile with the same benefits as an adult? for what? To warn you that he missed the six o'clock bus and will he be home a little late?
Everyone has their reasons, but let's try to make them consistent ..., we don't have to think like the others, nor are we obliged to accept requests from children based on personal perceptions (not always true the "everyone has it")
Do you need recommendations?
Children who use this application must act as if his conversations were public, this is: as if your photographs were to be seen by third parties to those who do not know anything, and as if the information they return there would leave the purely private environment. Parents should teach their children to protect their privacy. Do not have the false feeling that they are talking with their friends, 'because it is very easy to send a photo to the group and a bad friend is included in it'.
It is advisable to inform your children of what it means to send a photo that threatens their dignity or that of other minors. The simple fact of send by WhatsApp a photo where a naked child appears or with a suggestive pose is distribution of child pornography.
What if we start by explaining the difference between joke and crime?
- It is very difficult for children who already use smartphones to stop using an application that allows them to communicate in such a simple, immediate and practically free way as WhatsApp, and it is also everywhere. Children are although they dominate the use of technology, and if we do not understand this, we encourage our children to become “digital orphans”. Parents must catch up and be able to exercise our educational capacity, Do you think you don't know? It's a matter of catching up, wanting and investing a few hours.
I would like to point out that if there are whatsapp conversations that involve harassment for our children, it is precisely those that should not be eliminated, since they constitute in themselves a complaint to be presented to the police.
To conclude, and pending the report of Protégeles that will arrive in a few weeks, I would like to say that in my opinion WhatsApp is not for children, because to safeguard privacy and take care of privacy using this application, it is required a way of acting that is contrary to the search for immediate results (something very typical of childhood). But we have a reality consisting of a very high percentage of minors who use it, the least we can do is stop being spectators and get involved.
Images | Abul Hussain, MIKI Yoshihito Via | Tranki Pap @ as, ABC In Peques and More | In Internet addiction, symptoms similar to those that appear with drug addictions are observed. We interview Clara Marco, Tuenti and INTECO on Internet Day: Decalogue of advice on privacy and security in Social Networks
