After the directive from the Minister of Education to ban cell phones in class until middle school (it’s absurd that there was even a need for it), a petition promoted by various psychotherapists and pedagogists is now circulating to even ask for a ban on having a smartphone until the age of 14 and on having a social profile until the age of 16. The proposal itself is complicated, if not totally utopian: it raises questions of educational freedom for families, of the usefulness of bans, of cohabitation with the digital tools that kids inevitably see around them every day.

Too many clichés

I don’t think the real applicability of the proposal is the point, but rather the need to finally spark a public debate on the topic. Currently, on the subject of the consequences of smartphone use on cognitive and motor development, there are mostly clichés circulating, often exaggerated and in any case based mainly on hearsay. Or, on the contrary, we witness total disinterest: the problem is not raised and the kids are left to the Internet, and time will tell.

The only way is to talk about it, to inform

What we need, therefore, is the opinion of experts, supported by reliable studies, and healthy and fruitful discussion spaces. The doubts and fears of parents who do not know how to protect their children from the digital world, not wanting to make them alien to their time and distant from their peers equipped with smartphones, must be taken seriously and possibly resolved.

At the same time, parents who have never asked themselves the question and have placed a smartphone in the hand of their nine-year-old son must be helped to understand that the constant use of these devices is not without risks. In fact, if families were adequately trained on how to behave, this proposal would never have even been born; but the situation of minors and social media has become terrifying, and it is the State’s duty to intervene, first of all to educate.

Of course, it is perhaps absurd to think of protecting minors from the world of the web, because it is an omnipresent reality, almost impossible to regulate: we take away their smartphone, they have a tablet; we prohibit them from signing up to social networks, they create a fake account; in short, since the world began we know that adolescents will always find ways to contravene parental will. On the other hand, even the idea of ​​succumbing is not acceptable: a way must be found.

Creating a culture of awareness and vigilance

Of course, the ban is useless if there is no culture: a parent unaware of the risks who wants to enjoy dinner at a restaurant without having to interact with their child will continue to shove the phone in their hand, whether it belongs to their child or their great-great-grandfather. The problem is that this culture does not arise on its own, but must be nurtured: it is wrong to take for granted that all parents have the tools to navigate this jungle, also because they may be the first to abuse social networks, various games and shopping apps.

The first step is therefore to defeat the resistance of those who associate the desire for regulation with passéism. This is not an easy task, precisely because of the polarization I mentioned at the beginning; but we have examples of people who have brought about change through dissemination on this topic. I am referring in particular to the work of Serena Mazzini, a social media analyst who has long been informing users for free of all the dangers of social media, and who has managed to have a bill submitted to Parliament to regulate the use of minors on these platforms.

I repeat: prohibition is useless without culture; with culture, perhaps, even prohibition would not be necessary.