Ten, eleven, twelve hours a day. This is the time that many guys spend online during the summer holidays. Smartphone, social, video games, streaming. A whole day – and often also the night – spent in front of a screen. What if digital devices could go on vacation? It is from this provocation that the new awareness campaign signed by Carolina Foundationin collaboration with the Creative Agency Mynd.
The title of the campaign is clear and direct: “The Unseen Risk”or “the invisible risk”. An expression that perfectly photographs that gray area that escapes too often to the adult eye: the conviction, deeply rooted, that the only physical presence is enough to guarantee protection and serenity to the youngest. But that’s not the case.
The online hours multiply
According to the data collected by Study Center of the Carolina Foundationi pre -adolescents between 11 and 14 yearsthey spend Between 6 and 8 hours online per day. A number that, during the summer holidays, salt vertiginously to exceed 10 hours. For children over 14, the connected time can also come to 13 hours daily. Videogame, streaming, social media and instant messaging are the most practiced activities – often concentrated in the evening and night band.
But more connection does not necessarily mean more sociability. Indeed, hyperconnection can quickly transform into isolation, alienation, addiction, polarization, sexting, ludopathy and in some cases dangerous adaptation and challenge. All phenomena that – underlines the Foundation – threaten digital well -being and, with it, the mental health of the new generations.
A only apparent presence
“We delude ourselves that the mere fact of living the same context – at home, at the sea, in the mountains or in a park – can ward off our kids the risk of living situations of discomfort”, observes Ivano ZoppiSecretary General of the Carolina Foundation.
And he adds: «We are not leaving them in front of a book or a toy. Even TV, so criticized in the previous decades, guarantees a minimum of control compared to content and hourly bands. Here, however, we are talking about the web, social networks and streaming platforms that, for better or for worse, project the minor on dimensions and languages not always within the reach of adults, even if they are in the same room ».
In short, the problem is not only the use of the smartphone, but the lack of educational accompaniment by adults. For this, the campaign “The Unseen Risk” aims to trigger a visual reflectionthrough three illustrations set in summer scenarios – park, sea and mountains – which, at first glance, appear reassuring and family members. But, as Zoppi explains, “at first glance you almost do not perceive anything, but at a more careful look we can grasp that small feeling of disorder That we hope can generate a reflection on the need to support, participate and supervise the presence of online minors ».
The ideas do not change the world on their own
Behind the campaign is the work of the agency Myndwho has chosen Fondazione Carolina for a social communication activity carried out pro bono. «The ideas do not change the world alone – he explains Claudio GrimaldiAgency’s founder – but when they are at the service of the right causes they can become powerful tools of change. We are proud to have put our creative skills in the Carolina Foundation service, a partner who fights every day to make digital a safer place for children and teenagers ».
A civil commitment that does not stop at the visual campaign. Foundation Carolina has also made a Decalogue for an analog summer: Ten suggestions – concrete, ironic, accessible – to rediscover a more present, more human, truest holiday.
The decalogue for an analog summer
- Digital Relax
The smartphone also deserves a holiday. Landscapes, friends and good food are not on the screens. - The world from one porthole
There is no better lens of the human gaze: true memories live in the heart, not in the cloud. - Lowers the tones
Video calls and all -volume music cover the sounds of nature. Rediscover silence. - Buy a vowel
An authentic chat with friends and family is worth more than one hundred vocal messages. - Clean energy
If the phone is unloaded, take advantage of it to recharge your batteries: the real ones. - Don’t Stop Me Now
Sport, game, reading, trips. If boredom arrives, you react with true sociality, not with social media. - Do not put art aside
Museums, city of art, monuments: live them live, not just to share them online. - Relax responsible
Never leave smartphones and tablets unattended to a child: it can access unsuitable content. - Family album
Don’t turn yourself into a special holiday correspondent: enough with the social report h24. - Don’t play the summer
Video games can wait. Tickets, rackets, eagles: rediscover the pleasure of the real game.
A decalogue designed for families, educators, parents and adolescents, useful for putting at the center what really matters: The quality of the time lived together. Because, as Zoppi still recalls, «it would be enough to give our children some alternatives. A family trip, a simple picnic, a game of soccer or an afternoon on the pedalò can give us “fieldless” moments, as rare as they are precious “.
