Today the European Association for Digital Transition is launching the campaign ‘A un click de ayudarles‘ (‘Just a click away from helping them’) in collaboration with the Atresmedia Foundation, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) and the ANAR Foundation (helping children and teenagers at risk). The aim of this initiative is to encourage parents to take a more active role in the online activity of minors, alerting them to its risks – such as cyberbullying, isolation or self-esteem problems – and also to the characteristics of certain business models on the platforms and social networks, which are based on profiling the minor’s data for Its subsequent commercialisation via advertising.
The initiative has a website, aunclickdeayudarles.es, which offers useful information to guide children in their online activity, provided by the different partners. For example, practical tips for children to navigate through a healthy and safe digital environment, offered by the ANAR Foundation; audiovisual content made especially for children and adolescents on how to manage information, the media and use of devices through the Atresmedia Foundation’s audiovisual format, Amibox, and Its version for younger children, Amibox Kids (available on ATRESplayer); and a decalogue, prepared by the EADT, that frames use of the internet by minors within the general context of the digital transition, starring the great giants of the Internet. Finally, the Spanish Data Protection Agency adds to the initiative ‘La guía que no viene con el móvil’ (‘The guide that doesn’t come with your mobile’), with the ten keys that families should consider before and after giving their child a telephone, and access to its Canal Prioritario (Priority Channel) to request the immediate removal of sexual or violent content published without the consent of the people involved.
As of this Wednesday, May 24th, the information campaign ‘A un click de ayudarles’ will be broadcast free of charge on all the television channels (Antena 3, laSexta, Nova, Neox, Mega, Atreseries) and radio stations (Onda Cero, Europa FM, Melodía FM) of the Atresmedia Group.
As the ‘Informe Anual 2020 del Teléfono/Chat ANAR’ (2020 Annual Report of the ANAR Telephone/Chat) points out, in the last six years requests to the association for help from children and adolescents have nearly doubled, with a very significant increase in problems having to do with self-esteem, anxiety, and sadness and depression. And as the ANAR Foundation itself points out, the use of technology and access to social networks are involved in all these phenomena, passing through them and strengthening them transversally. With this campaign, the EADT is calling for citizens to defend a digitalisation that respects in particular minors, a vulnerable group. This is a collective endeavour that should be accompanied by demanding regulations from the EU in defence of its citizens and very especially of children and adolescents.
