The lawyer from Lleida, Ramon Arnó, is the creator of the 'La Família Digital' initiative , a portal where consulting and training services are provided to families and minors, as well as to the educational community, in order to identify opportunities and combat the threats and risks of the digital world.
From the Punt TIC Network, we spent some time with him to delve deeper into the new proposal.
1. How did the 'Digital Family' initiative come about?
I work as a lawyer specializing in the legal aspects of the digital environment and, in particular, I have a lot of experience in the confluence between minors, the digital world, opportunities and threats. Over the past few years, I have advised families and minors on various issues such as, for example, cyberbullying, crimes of disclosure of secrets or identity theft. The 'Digital Family' initiative was born to advise citizens on how to respond from a legal point of view.
2. Why is it important to encourage the responsible use of technology in homes?
As parents, we must look after our sons and daughters, we must educate them and above all we must help them to be critical in everything that refers to the digital environment. We could say that this is almost an obligation, since we parents are the holders of parental authority, which is an institution of family law that is defined as a tuitive function at the service of the best interests of minor sons and daughters, which entails duties on the part of the parents and which is the institution of protection par excellence.
3. What should be the role of parents or guardians?
We must provide our sons and daughters with experience and knowledge. Let us never forget that we are the first line of protection and at the same time the most solid line of protection. As parents, we have the responsibility to support the digital literacy of our sons and daughters, but we often need support to do so, since many of the mechanisms that we have developed in the real environment, in life outside the network to accompany them on their journey towards maturity, are not useful for the digital environment.
4. What is the current reality in Catalan homes?
Unfortunately, there is a clear and evident gap between the skills that are necessary to operate safely and confidently in the digital environment and the skills we have to do so in Catalan homes, but also the skills we have to do so in educational centers, organizations, companies or entities. This fact largely explains the large number of incidents that we sadly see every day in the media, and which lately are especially related to the use of artificial intelligence tools.
5. What three initial recommendations, tips, tools or resources would you give to families?
The first recommendation is that all family members jointly define a digital strategy, both to protect minors from risks and to inform them of opportunities, which means, among other things, carrying out positive parental mediation and not simply prohibitive parental mediation or totally disinhibitory parental mediation. The second is that they feel accompanied when they use the digital environment and that they talk about it, that they are their first point of contact when they have an incident. The third is that they discuss and agree on a family digital plan such as the one published by the Department of Education.
For more information, you can consult the official website of the initiative.