The complaints made by the influencer Felca Bressin a video published last week, they focused on the rbans that social networks represent for children and adolescents And as there is no regulation on the use of images of minors in these virtual spaces. The scenes exposed by Felca shocked and caused the reaction of the National Congress, the Presidency of the Republic and various sectors of society.
Experts interviewed by Agência Brasil guide fathers, mothers and guardians on how to protect children and adolescents in virtual environments. In addition, they highlight the role of schools, social assistance from other public facilities in defending the rights of this portion of the population.
Indicative classification
According to the writer, speaker and activist for the eradication of sexual and online violence, Sheylli Caleffiit is necessary to know and respect the indicative classification of the platforms. Instagram, for example, is not recommended for children under 16. Tiktok and WhatsApp should not be used by children under 13.
Those responsible should ensure that the ages informed are correct, as the platforms themselves do not ask for any type of verification. In addition, they must observe the settings to prevent anyone from having access to the profile of children under 18 and that they receive messages from unknown persons.
“When you decide to give your children access to digital environments, you also need to look at the configuration of what you have chosen to give access,” he says.
“The ideal is a private account if there is any child’s image. And obviously teenagers, when they are the age of starting, have to have their accounts private, too, to only access content to the people selected by them.”
According to the research of the Regional Center for Studies for the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), 93% of the Brazilian population, from 9 to 17 years old, are internet users, representing 24.5 million people. Tic Kid Online survey also shows that 83% of these adolescents have their own profile on social networks. In addition, 30% reported that they had contact with someone online who did not know personally.
Care when posting photos
Even if children do not have accounts on digital platforms, Caleffi warns that family members themselves can put them at risk when they post photos or videos of them on their own profiles.
“They are not social networks, they are trade networks. Everything that is there is to sell. We have to lose this naive idea that the social network is a photo album,” he says.
“Something that is cool, even sacred to many people, is for other people. So you have to imagine that when you put an image in a place visited by billions of people and many, many criminals, that can be easily taken out of context,” he added.
This should be taken into consideration by anyone who decides to disclose the image of a child. “When you publicize content with children and teenagers, you first have to ensure that you are the legal guardian for this child. If I’m a grandmother, I’m not a cool guard for this child. If I’m uncle, I’m not a cool guard. If I am the teacher, I am not,” he advises.
For Caleffi, “no one, apart from the legal guardians for the child, can decide if this child will have any image exposed in these commercial environments that are digital platforms,” he says.
Under the activist, any account that has images of children or adolescents, even if it is an adult spreading the photos of the child, should be closed. This will make only authorized persons access to content.
Adultization inside and outside the networks
Felca complaints also highlighted the role of networks for the call of children, ie children and adolescents placed in adult contexts. According to Caleffi, this occurs in networks and also outside of them and can cause huge psychological damage.
“Many things adultery the child and may make it seem that early sexualization is common. Bold clothes for age, children wearing makeup, wearing elements that are from adults. Many young children are making up, we have problems for 9, 10 years diet. 4 -year -olds dissatisfied with their own body. Where is she seeing it?
In addition to exposure on the Internet, the moderation of those responsible for what is accessed is fundamental so that no contact is contact that can be harmful to training.
“Parents can also, in addition to having a very frank conversation with children about what the dangers are, what are the risks, combining that they will look at what they are doing in the WhatsApp group, with whom they are talking. You can also download a parental mediation app,” he recommends.
According to Caleffi, this type of application allows, for example, that those responsible control the time that children and adolescents pass the screen, allow their location tracking and produce reports of what they are accessing on electronic devices.
Beyond families
The associate teacher of Department of Psychology, Federal University of Ceará (UFC) Vládia Jucáit points out that in addition to the role of families, the care of children and adolescents is up to the public power and society in general, as provided by law, in the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA).
“We have a set of sectors and equipment that, articulated, make up the Care and Protection Network for Children and Adolescents. This network has both a protective and active function before children and adolescents are in a risk situation, as well as it can be triggered when it is already in a risk situation, ”says Jucá, who is one of the authors of the guide to articulation between schools and the child and adolescent protection network.
This network involves schools -where children spend most of their time -health equipment, social assistance, justice, prosecutor, among others. All of them must act together to ensure the protection of children and adolescents. That is, if the school identifies the child is experiencing a problem, social assistance must be ready to follow the case, as well as justice, if necessary.
She explains that assistance networks should act where children and adolescents are, where they study, where they play, where they circulate and this includes acting on the internet. “Even helping families, in order to make families understand what this virtual space is, which is often used by families as a” look like my son is beautiful, right? Look how wise my son “, as if it were a portrait album. Without an exact notion that it falls in the public domain and that these images can be used in the most diverse ways,” he says.
Listening spaces
According to the teacher, in addition to regulating the performance of digital platforms themselves, technology companies and social networks, the country needs to strengthen assistance networks and public facilities, which often face lack of infrastructure and lack of professionals.
“We still need to walk, and this is for yesterday, with this regulation of networks, the platforms. But not disregarding or losing sight, that education has an important place, that health has an important place and all these equipment where children and adolescents circulate, are listened to, where they talk to them, all these spaces are spaces of construction of this whole protection,” he says.
She also points out that in all these environments, you need to listen carefully to children and adolescents, even so that they can identify if they are experiencing a problem, some situation of violence.
“I work a lot with the teenager. And one thing that teenagers say a lot is how little they are listened to.”
Denunciations
To denounce situations of abuse or exploitation of children and adolescents, as well as other human rights violations, call 100 of fixed or cell phones. Dial 100 is a free telephone service, available 24 hours a day.
