Who is responsible for a child 12 years have included it in a cluster by WhatsApp in which it is shared porn content extremely violent, in addition to racist and homophobic comments, and “cheers” for Franco? “Of course, not the school. I believe that the one who gave them a motive is responsible; that is, the families,” responds the director of the school. institute among whose students it originated and began to spread chat that has alarmed families and students of Barcelona. The teacher, in fact, maintains that training and talks on the proper use of technology no longer make sense to begin in secondary school. According to him, they should start in primary school and involve the students’ families.
Teachers demand that training on networks and smartphones begin in primary school, when many children have access to them
One of the problems that educational centers whose students have been added to this controversial chat have encountered is that the teachers barely knew them or their families. In most cases, it is children who have been in school for less than a month to start first ESO. The other drawback is that the viralization of this group occurred two days before the long weekend, a time when, if the families were not aware, the school could not contain the expansion of this group because there were no classes.
Parent training
However, there are at least six secondary schools that have already taken action on the matter. All of them have spoken with the studentss on the topic just before they went on vacation, and most have sent communications to families asking for greater control over mobile phones.
“Parents give them a phone but they have no idea how to manage it, and they are responsible for how their children use it,” questions a teacher who, in the coming days, will provide training on parental control and new technologies to the Institute families. “But those who are convinced always come, those who already do things well,” he laments.
Initiatives
In fact, secondary schools have been working on the proper use of mobile phones for years. A growing number of institutes even have banned its use within the institute for the problems and conflicts that causes in the classroom. However, they are done workshops security with the Mossos and are carried out educational projectsplays and exhibitions related to the topic.
“The problem is that families give the cell phone earlier and earlier; Children have their first phone in 4th or 5th grade, and they arrive at ESO without any knowledge of how to use it. At that point, we can’t do anything, all the training we do falls short. This has to be done before,” explains this director. He gives as an example the three classes that this year have started ESO first in his center. There are 88 children. 86 have a mobile phone. “And they are all on WhatsApp and Instagram, absolutely sure.” , it states.
Online harassment
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That is why in the end it is difficult for minors not to fall for this type of content. “It is important that we do our job pedagogical responsibility“says the director. But he admits that, in his center, they have already lived traumatic situations with students in whom it has police intervened. “What usually happens is that there are pedophiles who look for girls or boys on Instagram, start talking to them and pretend to be someone their age,” explains the teacher.
The center’s management has detected cases in which these abusers had already coerced students. “With the first photo they send, the extortion begins, and they die of shame because they fear that those photos will be seen by the entire school.” The director adds that these are not many cases, and that they have all been resolved without serious consequences. “What happened with this WhatsApp chat has to help us realize how unprotected children and parents arein the face of the control of technologies”.