A new regulatory package prepared in Turkey to increase the safety of children in the digital environment envisages the introduction of special SIM cards for children, strengthening parental control, blocking harmful content and aggressive games, as well as increasing control over VPN use.
How can such a model affect the safer use of the Internet by users under 18 in Azerbaijan?
IT specialist Farhad Miraliyev gave a statement to AzEdu.az on the topic.
He noted that technical procedures and protection tools are secondary, and the main responsibility falls on parents:
“The listed technical procedures and protection tools are, in my opinion, secondary. If we look at the issue carefully, we will see that the number one responsibility in this area lies with parents. At the same time, the role of the school, teachers and psychologists is also great.
Unfortunately, we currently observe in society that access to digital content is not always under the control of parents. Parents often fail to provide a safe environment when giving their children a tablet, mobile phone or computer. In most cases, devices are simply provided for the child to either study or play. However, during that time, what the child is specifically doing and what content they are accessing often remains out of control.
That is why the main task of parents is to approach it more vigilantly, more seriously and more responsibly. Access to the digital environment and content must be kept under control and certain restrictions must be applied."
Psychologists in schools should be more active, and the psychological state of children and possible family problems should be investigated in a timely manner:
“Work in this direction should also be carried out more actively in schools. In particular, school psychologists should always be active and conduct individual and preventive conversations with children who are overlooked. They should investigate whether they have any psychological problems. In some cases, children may be exposed to family conflicts or violence, which negatively affects their psychology and can lead to serious problems in the future.
Taking all this into account, the school, society and parents must work together and combine their efforts for the healthy psychology and sound mind of the future generation.
Other technical issues are auxiliary tools to achieve the main goal. For example, methods such as internet traffic analysis, monitoring of platforms accessed by the child, application of restrictions in software or regulation of usage time are among these."
