According to international studies, the amount of time that minors spend online has doubled between 2020 and 2021, which has increased the risks of using the Internet, such as cyberbullying, cybercriminals, and other threats that are constantly present on the Internet.

That is why CES University and Tigo conducted a sectoral and comparative study within their social responsibility program “Contigo Conectados” to determine how ready children and adults are to recognize and face online risks such as cyberbullying.

“What we did during this research was to talk openly with them, ask simple and digestible questions and get their informed opinion. We were pleasantly surprised by the advanced knowledge that the children and young people we surveyed have,” said Marcelo Cataldo, President of Tigo.

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As the excessive use of the Internet indicates, this can be a problem for legal guardians or parents, which is why they are looking for support strategies and attention and avenues of complaints to help minors who are the main victims of these threats.

According to the survey conducted, it was found that 79% of boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 12 admit that attacks on social networks are caused by cyberbullying. In addition, 74% agreed that cyberbullying harms other people who coexist in this environment.

92% of 10- to 12-year-olds said they shouldn’t shut up if someone is cyberbullying them, “suggesting the importance of adult mediation and reinforcement,” the company emphasized.

However, about 25% of the adults surveyed do not believe that cyberbullying does not harm others. On the other hand, 71.4% agree that sharing a post that speaks ill of others is cyberbullying, while around 16% disagree with this statement.

Adults and the Internet

On the other hand, in the case of adolescents over the age of 13, he indicated that 77% of respondents say that they meet strangers online, which can lead to the risk of cyberbullying, sexting, sexual exploitation and more.

89% said they would advise a friend who is being cyberbullied to tell their parents, teachers or someone they trust, and 68% believe that shutting down social networks is not the only solution to cyberbullying. For this reason, they gave some basic recommendations for accompanying children and young people:

“Identifying specific facts of aggression and finding out what means were used to carry it out, as well as analyze the school and family environment that minors experience and investigate the reasons why this situation occurred.

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They also emphasize the importance of talking to both victims’ relatives and directly involved perpetrators about the facts presented and creating spaces for respectful dialogue that serve to learn about their children’s interests and experiences with the use of digital technologies. .

Another important point is to explore all the institutional care routes that exist and how each of them can be used to report or seek professional help. Some of these are the ICBF’s 141st line and the National Police’s virtual CAI and establish early actions that help stop a situation of aggression before it resolves.

“Ask for help from a professional close to you, it is recommended to block people who attack you and do not continue abusive conversations. Also, always warn about the incident, protect your privacy and keep all evidence of the fact,” they told him.

Google: New security features

under Safer Internet DayGoogle announced updates and news in products like Search Engine, YouTube and Drive, and support with international organizations that contribute to the ecosystem.

As mentioned, it is currently being used by a technology company Artificial intellect To protect people from online threats, “More than 99.9% of Gmail every day Spamhe Phishing and malware and nearly 15 billion spam messages,” they noted.

“We will now extend this protection Google Drive. Coming soon, the beta will let you use a new folder in Drive to host content that’s automatically classified or manually reported as spam.

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The new update will bring the use of virtual cards, as now more credit card holders will have security control functions. They will be able to suspend, update or delete virtual cards in their settings Chrome and/or bank applications without changing the actual plastic card.

and additional privacy protections iOSwhich will be able to configure the function FaceID (face ID) to protect the privacy of the Google application. That way, if someone else has the device, they won’t be able to access tabs, search history, or other sections of the app.