THE numbers of the dependence of young people on social networks and of the phenomena of cyberbullying they are disturbing, above all because they are growing, above all because they make people feel almost totally unarmed adults. The latest report “Between digital and cyber risk: risks and opportunities of the web”made by MoigeMovimento Italiano Genitori, with the Piepoli Institute, spoke of the 22% of teenagers connected for more than 5 hours a day and mostly without any adult supervision. Not only that: 30% of young people are victims of cyberbullying phenomena increased in particular in 11- and 13-year-olds.
What can parents do in this situation?
Young people and social networks, the new protection tools
From the mass of the phenomenon, the importance of support, control and protection tools for younger web users. Of any kind.
Useful, because they are internal to the social networks themselves, those inaugurated these days by Meta. Which are added to some functions already in use. Even now when adults who have exhibited potentially suspicious behavior send messages to teenagers, they are sent to teenagers security alerts. We also don’t allow people over the age of 19 to send private messages to teens who don’t follow them.
What’s new: Before you can send a message to someone who doesn’t follow you, you’ll need to send a request for permission to connect. Only one request can be sent at a time and no more can be sent until the recipient accepts the invitation to get in touch. And these message requests are text-only content (not photos, videos, or voice messages).
Too much time on social networks? The prompt to log out arrives
The “Take a break” tool already exists on Instagram. Among the novelties, the notification, after 20 minutes on Facebook, inviting you to log out of the app and to establish daily time limits. A system of notifications on Instagram is also being studied suggests teens close the app if they are watching Reels at night. It will be available soon Do Not Disturb mode on Instagram, which changes the profile’s activity status.
Supervision tools for parents on Instagram
Among the new features, an alert aimed at teenagers after they have blocked someone, which them encourages allowing parents to supervise their account Instagram to support them. One way to remind them how parental guidance can be supportive.
In addition to seeing which accounts kids follow and who they’re being followed by, parents will now be able to see how many friends kids have in common with those accounts. This will help parents understand how well the teenager knows them. How much these measures will help we will see in some time, but in any case it is worth a try.
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