The studies on the consequences of misuse of screens among minors are devastating and, in the absence of an institutional response with guarantees, some families have begun to organize. In Tolosa, a Basque town with 20,000 inhabitants, a group of fathers and mothers have managed to get the municipality to respond collectively to this problem. The latest example is the initiative that has led local businesses to announce in their windows that their telephones are available for anyone who wants to use them in case of emergency or unforeseen events, a gesture that seeks to counteract one of the excuses that leads to overtaking the purchase of the first mobile phone.
Before, these families have managed to socialize the problem, organizing talks and conferences; They have agreed and disseminated a decalogue for responsible use of screens; and they have managed to install in the three schools of the municipality a dynamic that leads families to sign a commitment, if they wish, by which they agree not to buy their children’s first mobile phone during the agreed period (normally it is renewed or not semiannually).
This small revolution aimed at putting a stop to the use of screens among minors has its origins in the concern of several groups of fathers and mothers, of the same generation, who were coordinated in the three schools in Tolosa. They decided to act together and formed the group Altxa Burua (raise your head). Orkatz Goenaga, father of three sons and daughters between 13 and 10 years old, is one of the people who participated in this group: “We were clear that training and awareness were the first step. Families had to be aware that screens, cell phones and social networks are generating significant problems. The first initiatives were focused on raising awareness.”
Those dynamics led to the preparation of a first decalogue aimed, basically, at those families that have already taken the step of buying a mobile phone for minors, a basic document that has allowed spreading awareness in the municipality. “We are not against cell phones, what worries us is misuse,” says Goenaga. In any case, this group also detected that there was a huge gap between the age that experts recommend for the first mobile phone, 16 years old, and the age at which many minors actually have it, between 9 and 13 years old. At that point, they saw that many families give in to a series of repeated arguments (“the rest of my friends already have it”, “what do I do if something happens to me or I’m late?”…) or to the mere insistence of the parents. minors.
From that reading was born the contract that the families of the municipality’s schools sign, if they so wish (at the moment in sixth grade and 1st year of ESO), and also the latest initiative that has reached the municipality’s businesses: “Se We came up with the idea of ??involving businesses so that, if necessary, they would allow minors to use the telephone. They have been totally involved, as has the City Council. We have nothing but words of gratitude. It is about delving into the idea of ??shared care,” adds Goenaga.
Businesses that allow minors – and anyone – to use their phones are installing a sticker in their windows with the slogan “You can use ours”, a brand that also makes the debate around the problem visible. The objective is, basically, to raise awareness among families and prevent them from being forced to wage war on their own in the face of a problem that is causing significant problems, from disorders related to attention span, hyperactivity and, in general, health. mental to access to inappropriate content. What is also worrying is everything that minors are failing to do, at a relational, intellectual or physical activity level, due to spending between three and eight hours a day with their eyes glued to the screens.
