MADRID, 7 Feb. (Portaltic/EP) –
The use of the ‘smartphone’ has become widespread among people of all ages, who increasingly use the Internet more to perform daily tasksbut this digital immersion is not without risks, and both children and adults must know so that their respective experiences are safe.
This Tuesday, February 7th, the Safe Internet Daya date promoted by the INSAFE European network of Internet security centers and supported by the European Commission, which seeks to raise awareness about the safe and responsible use of new technologies.
This responsible and safe use depends on the knowledge and needs of the person who enters the Internet, whether it’s to keep up with the latest news, to communicate with friends and family or to shop.
children and adolescentsalready considered digital natives, they master new technologies from a very young age, but on many occasions they lack a basic awareness of the risks they can find on the Internet. At the opposite pole, and without excluding the rest of the adults, the older people may have problems joining the latest technological currents.
From SPC they remember that technology is an integral part of daily life and, by making sure that all generations have access to it, it will create a more inclusive, connected and secure society, without generational barriers.
In this sense, and although according to the National Observatory of Technology and Society (ONTSI), seven out of ten minors (69%) have a ‘smartphone’, and 98 percent of Spanish children and adolescents between 10 and 15 years have used the Internet regularly since 2020, Young people are not spared from falling for the scams that circulate on the Internet.
Deceptive online stores, fraudulent video games, phishing attacks -who seek to deceive by pretending to be a well-known brand- and spam are controllable risks that youth should be aware of.
For this reason it is recommended, always with the help of an adult, to verify the ‘url’ of the ‘online’ store before making a purchase; use an official application store, such as the App Store or Play Store, to download a mobile game; and carefully read any suspicious emails.
Social networks are the queens of the Internet for teenagers. Instagram and Tik Tok, for example, offer endless opportunities to explore and enjoy content in a format, video, that comes naturally to them.
For this reason, from SPC they remember that it is essential to ensure that young people know use social media responsibly. In this sense, there are parental controls, both on the computer from which they connect and on social networks.
It is also important inculcate values such as ‘netiquette’ and respect for othersand warn about the risks of revealing personal information on networks or sharing compromising images and files, both yours and your friends.
A fundamental element in cybersecurity is use antivirus software, a tool that not only protects against viruses, but also against ‘malware’ (malicious program) and other threats. For this reason, it is advisable to keep both the antivirus and the operating system of the device up to date, and to carry out analyzes on a regular basis, allows us to detect and eliminate any risk.
Despite the fact that companies like Apple and Google are moving towards a future without passwords, with proposals such as the access code, these are still important today to protect personal accounts in digital services.
For the Internet experience to be safe, the important thing is that you create a unique password for digital serviceand let it be easy to remember, although you can always resort to the help of a password manager. And it will be more robust than it has at least eight characters and combines both uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers and signs.
Although all these tips are addressed first of all to the youngest, senior internet users can and should also take them into account. And to alleviate the generational technological gap, children and adolescents can become on this occasion the “teachers” of their grandparents, and transmit their native knowledge of technology and their ability to adapt to new digital tools.
The older ones can also resort to adapted devices to your needs, such as telephones with large keys, and a simple interface with large icons, to facilitate access to new technologies.
