After a quarrel with his parents on the bad votes at school, he deactivates the internet connection. This is how a 13 -year -old girl, residing north of Bari, decides to call The emergency number for childhood, 114, denouncing this and alleged mistreatment by the parents. The fact dates back to January last year. From that moment on, the procedure envisaged in cases of suspected violence against minors, with the intervention of social services, of the infantile neuropsychiatry department of the ASL of Barletta-Andria-Trani and of the police, has taken place.
The story is the subject of an investigation by the Trani Prosecutor’s Office with experts who have detected one Strong dependence of the girl on the mobile phone, which he used for about ten hours a day. Just this dependence would have been, according to dad and mom, one of the causes of his bad votes at school, who in turn would have unleashed the discussions with their parents. During an evidentiary accident, the 13 -year -old admitted that, after the conflicts related to the school votes, he was removed from the phone.
While the Prosecutor decided to ask for the indictment of the parents, the first reflection goes to the Italian privacy code, which provides that “the minimum age to enroll in a social network is 14 years old”. The young Salentina instead has 13 years old. The system provides that those who have not yet accomplished them can have social networks, “but only with the consent by the parents. The European Regulation (GDPR) provides for a minimum threshold of 16 years “.
“Without going into the merits of this specific case but by partning from it for a general analysis, the parental fragility is noted as the background always in such situations. The only tool, beyond the report that the girl has made, is the punishment. Remove the mobile phone. An act that triggers a whole series of dynamics that have led the Apulian teenager to feel mistreated “, explains Ivano Zoppi Secretary General Carolina Foundation, an institution that deals with a network, cyberbullying and other online inconvenience of children and teenagers involving families, schools and institutions.
What at first glance may seem an exaggerated relationship of the young woman to a punishment of the parents, so it is not if you look thoroughly: «Had rules of use of the phone and social networks have been given? If he had access to you, it was because the parents gave permission, since he is under 14 years old », he says lame. That adds: «If there was no regulation of the use of the device in the family, then removing it in that way, for one or more ugly votes, can make the young man feel bad and punished deeply and unjustly. In addition, on the smartphone, for some time now and not only for the boys, an important slice of life occurs and happens. So if I first give a tool, and then I take it off without a dialogue or a comparison on the rules to follow, or on the times of use, the reaction can be that of the thirteen year old from Bari who calls 114, or how, happens in some cases that we intercepted, to have a psychological and physical malaise».
It is therefore clear that such a situation asks to return to think about the parental role. Is it really the phone from the cause of the bad votes? «That is at most one of the consequences, it cannot be the cause, let alone the main one. We have to realize “, reiterates the secretary general of the non -profit organization« who Inside the phone tool, the boys have a world that also gives answers to their questionsit’s welcoming because it shows you what you want. Ask and he returns, which is increasingly a parent a more or less and less. The moment there is no dialogue, there is no meeting with the adult world, and the young man takes refuge on the net, where then he must not surprise that he spent 10 hours a day in front of the screen. The goal is to work so that there is no need for social services intervention and there is no reaches at this point. And in this direction »concludes Zoppi” also our work goes as the Carolina Foundation in schools with children, with families and institutions “.
