Not just data. The value of kids and children in the digital world

One in 2 teens has encountered inappropriate social content in the past year, 68 percent of cases being violent, followed immediately by pornographic (59 percent) and sexually explicit (59 percent). These are just some of the data emerging from the report "Between Reality and Metaverse. Adolescents and Parents in the Digital World" prepared by Telefono Azzurro, which will be presented on Monday, Feb. 6, in Milan, in light of the Safer Internet Day, the recurrence dedicated to the conscious and responsible use of the Internet.

Università Cattolica has been engaged on several fronts in studying the relationship between minors and the different realities of the digital world in continuous and rapid evolution. On the occasion of the event promoted by Telefono Azzurro, Rector Franco Anelli said, "The Metaverse is a stimulating novelty, full of perspectives, suggestions, and unavoidable unknowns, which we need to learn about to manage the implications arising from its diffusion effectively. Università Cattolica does not want to miss the opportunities that new technologies can offer to make educational processes more effective, especially those at a distance. For this reason, we propose to test, with the involvement of faculty and students, teaching methods that exploit the potential offered by immersive technologies."

A commitment supported by the president of Telefono Azzurro Ernesto Caffo: "More and more in recent years, we are talking about Metaverse, multiverse and new methods of interaction through rapidly evolving technological platforms. Every sector involved must train and update itself constantly on the new frontiers toward which the Web is heading. This new technological paradigm imposes a challenge: identifying greater protections for children and adolescents, placing their value and dignity at the center of the debate. 

The Feb. 6 day (streaming here), promoted in collaboration with Humane Technology Lab, will open on the Milan campus (Crypt of the Aula Magna in largo Gemelli 1) at 9 a.m. with a debate on the digital world and its economic, social, psychological, ethical, legal and technological dimensions. An interdisciplinary discussion to help understand the extent to which the digital experience has a quantitative and qualitative impact on the lives of children and adolescents. 

After institutional greetings by Raffaella Iafrate, the Rector's delegate for Equal Opportunities, and an introduction by Ernesto Caffo, two-morning sessions will address "Children and Adolescents in the Digital" from the perspective of scenarios and challenges and opportunities. In addition, this session will present the report that Telefono Azzurro has prepared using the collaboration of Doxa Kids, aiming to bring to light the different issues faced with children and their parents. 

Giuseppe Riva, director of the Humane Technology Lab, will conclude the session, which studies explicitly the metaverse, "a technology significantly different from previous ones. If television and social media are persuasive technologies because of their ability to influence people's behaviors, the metaverse, on the other hand, is a transformative technology capable of modifying cognitive mechanisms and what people think is reality. That's why our lab is personally engaged in understanding how the metaverse can influence the behavior of younger people."

Four working groups on specific topics will follow in the afternoon: Datafied Childhood, Mental Health in the Digital World, Digital Ecosystems, and The New Frontiers of Online Safety.