Particularly during the pandemic, the web, which was born as an idea of a computer network that would allow many users of any nationality to communicate, has transformed, encouraging aggressive attitudes and antisocial and toxic behavior.
The experts in cyber-crime and defamation on social media have no doubts: we must return to humanity. This is why the ‘Be kind’ project has been founded, aiming to educate social media users in a healthy and constructive use of the network.
In Bologna, an idea was presented that could revolutionize the use of social networks by parents and children, consisting in attending a training course on the correct use of social networks in order to then be able to acquire a “social license”, with the aim of being able to stop the “bad” use of social media. So much so that the University of Bologna has opened a free online psychological listening desk for all young people involved in bullying and cyberbullying. Furthermore, the objective of the course is not only to involve students but also to inform parents about the acts performed by their child or why they get carried away in episodes of this type.
The 9th February is Safer Internet Day, an international day established in 2004 by the European Commission and celebrated in 170 countries around the world under the motto of “together for a better network”.
An attention also came from Pope Francis who underlined that in this year of pandemic we are witnessing an “educational catastrophe” in which “the increase in distance learning has also led to a greater dependence of children and adolescents on the internet and generally on virtual forms of communication”.
As we can see, the attention on this topic comes from several parts, but it is also up to us: we should collaborate and make good use of social media, bearing in mind the initial idea with which they were created.