Children are the masters of Internet

It’s their environment, their world, their natural environment. For them a mailing address or a fixed phone does not mean too much, a mobile phone number is somewhat more useful for the simple reason that can send and receive messages, but when they want to be in contact when they know other children and make new friends Do not ask any of these data, you say: give me your messenger. Do not ask if you have a computer, whether they are connected to the Internet or if you have a hotmail account, assume that all these requirements are met and that, furthermore, the connection is ADSL. Children are being broadband.

So do not be fooled, the Internet is not ours. We just are preparing for what they do on the Internet so that we can hardly imagine. We can talk about technological innovation, business development, communication and interaction, social networking and Web 2.0, the Web 3.0 and any neologism that we were going to occur. Prehistory. The wonderfully modern Internet that lets you do so many things and through crowded highways whose byte has come to this blog is little more than a Beta carried out with a lot of work and best intentions.

Being a child is no longer what it was. Being a child is the closest thing to be a pilot in Formula 1, because childhood is a time that runs at speeds of vertigo. That’s why the children are better prepared to assume, understand, develop and improve anything they find around them.

The estdaísticas say (and are estadísiticas 2007 U.S., so the figures should be revised upwards) that young people who now have less than 22 years have passed:

     – More than 20,000 hours in front of the TV

     – More than 5000 hours playing video game

     – More than 5000 hours on the phone

     – Have sent and received over 250,000 SMS messages and emails

 

     – And more than half have created some content for the Internet

They also say the data from various sources and studies that a child of 13 to 15 years have, on average, more than 350 contacts added in his messenger, that in an open session is from 5 to 15 simultaneous conversations, and that makes it more Ergonomic a command that kind PlayStation a flyer for “driving” a car in their video games. I really loved broadband are drawing a future that is in advance of ours.

The key to understanding what is the role and importance of children in the development of technology is to assume that pobablemente for the first time in history, children ahead of their parents’ access to and use of technologies. The computer was cheaper enough for a computer is not a subject that we must maintain expensive section of the reach of minors. On the other hand, applications, content and utilities designed for children, or that children can use “to his measure” are very numerous and easily accessible via the Web. It’s over technology and devices “reserved for elders.” Mobile phones, PDAs, computers, the video game consoles, MP3 and MP4 are part of the natural environment of most of our children and that is why they, in many cases, the early adopters, the energizing and introducing technology in homes, families and schools. We can not ignore that.

Driven by curiosity and excitement.

Two powerful engines to which must be added the lack of “technological panic” so typical of our generation (those who are among the many thirty-and forty-odd …), which has made us see the technology as many times a threat rather than an ally.

But when we talk about children and the Internet, there is an immediate concern: security. A Google search on the Internet and our children will result in thousands of pages where pornography, harassment, cyberbullying and the hazardous contents are the subject of great debate. True, the Internet is full of content that are dangerous or at least undesirable for children. Exactly the same thing happens in the real world.

Parents, educators, associations and authorities are concerned and propose measures, filters, security protocols to protect girls and boys of that which can harm them. It’s a justified concern, and certainly a serious problem. But let us not lose sight of something essential …

 

The problem of children on the Internet is not the security is the responsibility. And the responsibility is ours forever. The best preventive measure and the best security filter to protect children from the “danger of the Internet” are some parents at her side.

We also learn that we proactively share with our children as the digital life. We must ensure them, but, above all, we must sail with them. Ban is the worst of the alternatives, but has the perverse attraction of which is the simplest. Do not forget it.

And from here, we raised the challenge of incorporating children, the young, adolescent development of the Internet. Not only as observers or as users of the tools and content. They are essential in the design, in the developments in the test and in innovation. Any project-oriented endure and bring value should have at its core the illusion of development, creativity, ability and expectations of the smallest How can we do? Not looking at children only as an attractive market segment, but as an indispensable partner. The education system, economic system, the technological environment … the youngest are in the key point of intersection.

Let us be creative, think of new ways to harness the talents child because their value is incalculable. In this way, your Internet will also be ours and the technological gap that opens will be a bridge between generations and not a border.

Finally, it is helpful to remember that we keep a child inside, or should, thanks to which we remain ayendo the sonar casacabel Santa Claus … Do not you remember? In this case, perhaps it should go back to view with their children or their nephews, Polar Express.