The National Ethics Council for Life Sciences (CNECV) invited the Spanish Bioethics Committee to jointly address a topic "that is highly concerning for both countries": They chose the influence of digital addiction on the health of children and young people, the president of the CNECV told Lusa.

Maria do Céu Neves believes that the opinion can be "an important contribution to the initiatives" that are underway.

In the European Parliament (EP), for example, MEPs approved a report calling for a minimum age of 16 to access social media without parental consent in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU) and mechanisms to enforce this rule.

Asked whether the solution should involve prohibition or education, Maria do Céu Patrão Neves argues that “there aren’t only two alternatives.”

But prohibition “shouldn’t be completely ruled out,” since children are increasingly gaining “access to pornographic websites, to websites with extraordinary violence, where everything that shouldn’t be considered inappropriate experiences for that age, or perhaps for any age, is trivialized,” she warns.

This is a personal opinion, as the work of the two Iberian ethics committees will only be completed in January.

In the summer, they presented a preliminary version of the report “Ethical Perspectives on the Impact of Digital Addiction on the Health of Children and Young People” in Warsaw.

At that time, there were already recommendations addressed to the State, civil society, companies, schools, and families.

Starting with families

According to the president of the CNECV (National Committee for Ethics in Healthcare), the work begins in the family: “We worry when we see very young children, still in diapers, with their parents' cell phones in their hands, and the parents completely disconnected from their children,” she exemplifies.

One in three Portuguese children between 9 and 11 years old accesses the internet on a smartphone “several times a day,” spending two hours a day online (119 minutes), according to the research conducted in 19 countries, “EU Kids Online 2020,” and cited in the PowerPoint presentation in Warsaw.

Among older children, the average online time skyrockets, reaching almost four hours a day in the case of teenagers aged 15 and 16.

In the preliminary version presented in July, the two committees argued that screen use should always be supervised and monitored and that parents should establish “clear schedules and limits for screen time,” especially when children are under six years old.

Screens should not be allowed in bedrooms at night and should be inaccessible at least one hour before going home, according to the version, which may still be subject to change.

Responsibility

“Parents cannot abdicate their responsibility; they must set an example. But we also cannot ignore the great peer pressure, that is, from children and young people, who also induce certain types of behaviour,” she reminds us.

Therefore, it is essential to talk to children and offer alternatives such as sports, music, or other activities, argues the president of the CNECV.

The two committees suggest that civil society create “Local Digital Literacy Centers for Families in libraries and health centers, with workshops for parents, caregivers, and children,” says the PowerPoint presentation.

To governments, they recommended that the classification of digital applications and games and the “creation of a social network funded by public resources” become mandatory.

In the preliminary version, the two committees argued that technology companies should guarantee the protection of minors and regulate the use of data, privacy, and the development of algorithms.

Education

In schools, training should be provided and a Digital Citizenship subject should be created.

Furthermore, there should be limitations on the use of cell phones, with "possible prohibitions" up to the 5th grade and "strict regulation" in the 3rd cycle, that is, between the 7th and 9th grades.

In Portugal, the Government moved forward this school year with the prohibition of the use of smartphones within school premises up to the 5th grade.

In the "EU Kids Online 2020" survey, Portugal stands out negatively regarding access to social networks, with 38% of children between 9 and 11 years old using social networks daily, which is ten percentage points above the average of the countries surveyed.

Almost eight out of ten children (78%) aged 12 to 14 use social media daily, as do 88% of young people aged 15 to 16.

In online gaming as well, Portuguese children spend much more time glued to screens than the average in the countries surveyed, with almost half of the children playing daily.