More than half of the adolescent population in Spain has difficulty identifying when news is fake. This is revealed by a report by Save the Children on disinformation and the Exposure to hate speech of children and adolescents in the digital environment carried out within the framework of the #DerechosSinConexión campaign on the occasion of the International Day of Universal Access to Information, which is celebrated on September 28.
One of the main results of this analysis is that 60% of adolescents use the social networks as the main means of accessing information, at the same level as the television and ahead of other media such as online press (32%), radio or paper press (9% and 5% respectively).
When it comes to social media and content creators, 16% of teens believe they are Always a reliable source of informationa percentage that rises to 70% who think that they can be so on certain occasions. If broken down by gender, it can be seen that boys trust these profiles more: 23% consider them to be a reliable source of information compared to 9% of girls.
The organization has denounced that exposure to these contents “directly violates the rights of children and adolescence to truthful and reliable information, an essential right that is increasingly at stake.”
“While the Internet has democratized access to information, it has also facilitated the Proliferation of erroneous and harmful contentwhich perpetuates negative stereotypes, unrealistic models of life and encourages hate speech. This exhibition, together with the dehumanization that often characterizes the relationships in the digital world and which provokes behaviours that would not occur in the physical environment, making children especially vulnerable to this content,” said Catalina Perazzo, Director of Political and Social Advocacy at Save the Children.
Another aspect that worries the organization is related to hoaxes: 51% of teenagers would not be able to identify always when a news item is fake. Moreover, even if they suspect that it is fake news, one in four teenagers directly does not contrast itwhile 56% of teenagers would turn to family and friends to check its veracity. “We are concerned that these family and friends are also getting their information from the same sources, which could create a bubble effect and increase the risk of perpetuating false information,” Perazzo said.
The analysis has also pointed out another risk that affects children and adolescents in the digital environment and that directly impacts your mental health It is the permanent exposure, through networks, to ideal representations of certain lifestyles, beauty standards and, in the case of girls especially, the sexualization of the female body.
The organization has recalled that, although this constant exposure of private life as a business model already existed on television and the traditional press, “the digital world makes it possible for anyone to do so, which means that the concept of privacy now takes on a new meaning“.
“The public validation of the self-exposure that are carried out by the influencers It can cause boys and girls to replicate these behaviors and end up sharing more personal aspects or intimate or sexualized photos“This tends to occur more in the case of girls and adolescents, who due to sexist stereotypes may feel that they have to conform to publicly desirable bodies,” says Perazzo.
Gender differences in content and discourse
The Save the Children study also includes an analysis of various profiles of men and women streamers to compare differences in discourse based on gender, also among their communities of followers. In the case of content creators guys that are analyzed, it is observed that they have more followers as a general rule and show different types of risky behaviors, such as sharing recurrent sexual comments, making common reference to pornography or make reviews of video games with erotic or pornographic content. In addition, in the chats of their channels stream Misogynistic references are common, messages that They trivialize drug use or the attitudes of harassment towards those who show rejection towards what the streamer.
In the case of the content creatorsgenerally have a lower number of followers, and all have had to face attacks on their networks for various reasons: for defending victims of abuse, making visible mistreatment by an ex-partner or for not meeting certain aesthetic stereotypes.
Irene Fields, a video game content creator, says she has suffered this type of harassment on her social networks. “I have received many violent comments in this world just for being a girl who is like ‘go to the kitchen’, ‘what are you doing playing when you should be cleaning’ or even people have wished that I would suffer sexual assault, something that crosses the limits.”
Solutions to the problem
In his opinion, “education is necessary for learn to use new technologiessince everything is moving very fast and we cannot be left behind, and not only to know how to use them, but also for other things such as where to look for information, because a lot of it seems real and it is not,” he says.
In light of these data, the organization has requested that all measures included in the Organic Law on the Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence (LOPIVI) be deployed to provide Safe environments for children in the digital environment while ensuring that all their rights are met.
Save the Children bets on educate in responsible and safe use of the Internet and new technologies, which includes tools that help them evaluate the reliability and credibility of information sources in the digital environment, Identify and contrast untruthful information and understand the mechanisms behind the spread of hate speech.
Furthermore, he considers that “the amount of Misogynistic messages and sexist models that are spread on the Internet and that affect boys in a differentiated way, highlights the urgent need for an education in equality and a regulated and progressive affective-sexual education, which demands equality between men and women and combat gender stereotypes also in the digital world.”
“For these measures to be effective, all the actors involved must collaborate, such as public administrations and technology companies, but also families and educational centersOnly if all parties involved row in the same direction can we ensure that children and adolescents have access to a truthful, safe and diverse informationand we will be able to protect their rights,” Perazzo added.
The study was conducted with the participation of 3,315 teenagers aged 14 and over in Spain and five discussion groups made up of 27 children and adolescents, with representation from ages 10 to 17 years. In addition, Save the Children has counted on the collaboration of experts and professionals in the sectorfrom social workers who address pathologies related to the abuse of technology to creators of web services.
