Dto breastfeeding while looking at your cell phone at family dinner with the phones resting on the table. From the tablet in the baby’s stroller to the smartphone as a babysitter at the restaurant. «There are many, too many bad behaviors that have become habit. Improper uses of technological devices that harm our children. Which have consequences on their psychophysical development. Not maybe, not tomorrow. But today, and without a shadow of a doubt. The problem is that we are not aware of it.” Rosanna Milone, coordinator of the Carolina Foundation projects, explains itrecalling the data from a survey carried out with Italian families, in collaboration with paediatricians, in 2022.
The new Carolina Foundation column for iO Donna
From the symptoms of addiction to the effects of exposure to devices on children and infants. Families have a very poor perception of the risks of improper use of digital. Milone, who has been dealing with children’s rights online for years, explains: «As a mother, I understand the enormity of everyday commitments and the difficulty in stopping and reflecting. As a professional, I am concerned about the need to intercept parents in the most effective and quick way possible. Forgive me the irony, but I said to myself: we have to make them a little drawing, to make them understand the real dangers regarding the health of their children.”
Children and digital, families are not aware of the risks
They were born like this, like “drawings” to be grasped at a glance, the cartoons that Fondazione Carolina will propose on iO Donna starting from November 15th. Every Wednesday, with commentary from specialists: psychologists, pedagogists, paediatricians, new media experts. Cartoons that make you smile – we hope – but with a bitter smile, because they hit the mark. Cartoons that represent us as we arein our usual gestures. Behaviors of true smartphone addicts that we implement without even realizing it. Without reflecting on the consequences they have on our children, from early childhood to adolescence. Our children who see us, and watch us, accomplish them.
Online parents, so as not to be parents on the run
Parents shipwrecked in the digital ocean? You need awareness of the devices and of your educational role (cartoon created by Simone Campana for the Carolina Foundation).
«We adults are fascinated by technology like and more than them. In front of a smartphone we are children too, doped while waiting for notifications, compulsive in the search for a message that tells us that someone is looking for us, looking at us, loving us”. But, as parents, and adults, we are responsible for the effect that this narcissistic pleasure of ours has on the psychophysical development of our children. We cannot shrug our shoulders, ignore the problem and pretend nothing happened: this is equivalent to running away.
«Becoming aware of the problem is the first step», continues Milone. «The appropriate behaviors will come as a consequence. Like today, given the awareness of the risks of smoking, no one would dream of lighting a cigarette near a small child like this tomorrow in front of that same child we will use more caution when using a device».
Ready to set off on a journey towards this new, brand new awareness?
What the Carolina Foundation does
Carolina Foundation is the non-profit organization created in memory of thirteen-year-old Carolina Picchio, the first known Italian victim of cyberbullying in Italy. Its mission is to create a future in which the Internet is a safe “place” for children and adolescents, rediscovering the value of authentic relationships even on social media. Prevention, research and support, also with interventions in the field: these are the pillars of the Foundation.
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