In Spain Nearly one in four children between the ages of 7 and 9 have the TikTok video social network, a platform to which they spend around an hour and a half of their free time a day.
This is one of the results of the latest report prepared by the online security and digital well-being platform for families. Qustodio, which has determined that it has investigated at what age minors access social networks.
Qustodio has acknowledged that “there is no doubt” that social networks are part of people’s social life and, although some of them have age controls, children get around these limitations creating accounts at increasingly early ages.
This is demonstrated by the fact that in Spain it is quite common for children to access these platforms at a very early age. TikTok, for example, is used by one in four children between 7 and 9 years old; and They spend almost an hour and a half a day.
X (formerly Twitter) generates a similar interest among minors, with one in five children of this age group accessing it. However, the first to be used is Instagram, with 65 percent of children between 13 and 15 years old using it.
Spain This is the country where people tend to start using the service developed by the American technology company Meta first, compared to the United States or Australia, where this app is not among the most used.
In this regard, Qustodio has recalled that young people live in an increasingly digitalized era in which social networks “are an integral part of their lives,” even though excessive use can cause mental health problems. So much so that, according to data provided by Unicef, One in seven adolescents has a diagnosed mental health problem.
In doing so, he stressed that “society is at a time when the digital security of children is a priority” and this is demonstrated by initiatives such as the one proposed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Civil Service of Spain, José Luis Escrivá.
The Digital Wallet Beta, which is expected to be launched later this summer, aims to offer a convenient and easy system that allows minors to restrict access to pornographic content and websites dedicated to such videos and images.
However, taking care of the content that children access is also the responsibility of families, who must both know the use that minors give to the applications and speak with them openly about the dangers that come with misuse.
DEPENDENCE AND CYBERBULLYING
Early access to social networks can expose minors to a series of negative effects, such as harassment or cyberbullyingbecause these platforms have become a space where many users vent feelings of hostility and rejection towards certain people.
Having an account on services such as those mentioned as children can also generate dependency and create an addiction, given the need to fear access to continuous content. This has been warned for some time by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), which occasionally deals with how social networks and video games can affect the psychological integrity of children.
Finally, the multiplatform application has recognized that many times the so-called “posturing” or following trends forces users to analyze each publication for fear of being judged. This constant exposure, therefore, makes it inevitable that children end up comparing themselves and try to imitate what you see on the screen.