Forbid smartphone to children: this is the goal of the new bill put forward by Senator Andrea Cangini on which it has just expressed itself Sandra Zampa, undersecretary of the Ministry of Health. According to the undersecretary, it is senseless that a license is required to drive a car and to use the cellular there are no age limits. Since smartphones are a powerful tool like cars, Sandra Zampa believes that it is necessary to discern the possibilities of use based on the developmental age of children.
He also stated that in his view some applications should be limited, because children cannot spend the nights awake chatting. According to him, a minimum age for owning a smartphone should be established, with bans, controls and penalties for companies that create harmful content. The undersecretary of the Ministry of Health then proposed a table led by the Prime Minister in which to make decisions to be converted into law.
The proposals are designed not only to make smartphones forbidden to children under the age of 14, but also to prevent children from subscribing to social networks. In fact, it is proposed that a document be exhibited at the same time as registration on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, perhaps through the SPID. Currently social networks are already forbidden to children under 14, but the ease of use of false registration data and the lack of controls makes it easy for children to sign up.
It is no coincidence that the bill also looks to granting the postal police greater powers of prohibition and the possibility of sanctioning providers for non-compliance with the aforementioned directives.Sandra Zampa also believes that a training course for parents in the field of technology is necessary good of their children and to induce children to know the penal code by heart in order to make them aware of the consequences deriving from the violation of the law.
A ban on the use of smartphones, according to the undersecretary, should also be imposed in schools as an element of distraction and cause of intellectual damage. The phone should be "handed in at the entrance to the school and picked up at the exit". Below are the words of Sandra Zampa:
It is foolish that to drive a car you need a driving license and to use a mobile phone there are no age limits. Smartphones are as powerful as cars, if not more so, and distinctions must be made in the possibility of use with the developmental age of children. The connection and certain apps must be limited: children cannot spend the nights awake chatting. Adults and institutions have not been able to enter this world and therefore the little ones are not protected. We immediately need a table, led by the Presidency of the Council, involving the national guarantor of children, the guarantor of privacy, the telecommunications authority, pediatricians, neuropsychiatrists, psychologists, parents, teachers, the postal police, technology companies. You have to decide the age to own a smartphone, bans, controls and what penalties to inflict on companies that produce dangerous content. The decisions of this table must immediately become law.
It is inadmissible to see children of 2 or 3 enchanted in the restaurant with their smartphone. A cell phone at a certain age must be prohibited, but the limit must be set according to different ages: as is the case for the division of Italy in color, the prohibitions must be modulated according to age. You can have a mobile phone in your hand, for example, starting from the fifth grade. But this is not a race to see who hits the right age. We must also think about phones with fewer functions for the little ones: smartphones suitable for all ages.
Do you agree with the proposed law or do you believe that mobile phone use does not pose such a great threat to children under 14?
