Italians under 18 will not be able to access 8 types of “inappropriate” content.
Since November 21, the Italian government has been forcing operators to block “inappropriate” content on the cell phones of minors under 18 years of age. Eight inappropriate categories are established, including pornography, cult worship or the promotion of eating disorders. Italian leaders claim that the measure aims to protect minors from the dangers of the net.
A mandatory measure
The Italian Communications Authority (Agcom) is responsible for the measure. Their pressure has ensured that minors cannot access certain content. When someone under the age of 18 tries to enter a pornographic website, for example, it will be impossible for him or her to do so; entry will be blocked. Such a measure is popularly known as “state parental control”.
Operators will be obliged to block access to content classified as dangerous, without the minor’s guardians demanding it. They will activate a restriction on the SIM cards of lines registered in the name of minors. However, this procedure does not convince parents’ organizations.
The main problem they highlight is that many minors do not have mobile lines registered in their name. The usual practice is for parents to contract a line, which will be in the parent’s name, and let their child use it. No parental control will be activated on these lines, since they theoretically belong to adults. However, parents will be able to demand from the operators that the blocking is applied to them automatically and free of charge.
These are the 8 inaccessible categoriesPornographySects and cultsViolence
Use of weapons
Messages inciting hatred or discriminationGamblingGames of chanceWebsites promoting eating disordersTools for anonymous surfing on the Internet
On a daily basis, 85% of Italian teenagers aged 11-17 use a smartphone and 72% surf the Internet. Bans can prevent them from accessing this type of content, but experts insist that the most important thing is to educate young people to use technology responsibly and to be aware of the dangers of the Internet.
Most social networks require their users to be of a certain age, but it is extremely easy to circumvent this prohibition. Recently we exposed the case of a father who had to pay a fine of 10,000 euros because his son impersonated another minor, being impersonation a daily occurrence on the web. In Spain, a large number of parents relegate the task to parental control applications, which are a useful tool, but which must be accompanied by training for the minor.