Author: Denis TAHIRI
" I have 9K followers. I found out from my friends in the neighborhood. They use it more to watch the games and videos that are made. I post more ," says Andi. The 11-year-old says that he has been part of the TikTok platform for more than a year.
The minor began to explain about "Sinjalizo", the matches on TikTok, the process of how two people entered live, and how they earned money, through the gifts that other people sent them.
" I only publish anime videos, I really like Naruto, then I publish others. At first it was difficult, because my mom didn't let me spend much time on her phone, but now that they gave me one, it's very easy for me," says the 11-year-old, while on his mother's face, the feeling of anxiety appears even during the conversation we have with the minor.
" I try very hard all the time to check what he posts, who he communicates with, what they communicate, and so far, thank God, there has been nothing to worry about," says Andi's mother, who is a lawyer by profession.
" At first, we also installed parental control applications, but they serve to block part of what can be found online, and after talking to my husband, we came to the conclusion that it would be better to allow it without showing resistance to him, as it would be easier for us to also control what he was doing online," concludes the mother of an 11-year-old boy, telling "Sinjalizo".
150 complaints on Isigurt.al
150 cases of unsafe internet have been reported on the iSigurt.al platform for 2022. On this platform, minors, teenagers and parents can report incidents, harassment, etc.
" During 2022, there is a change in the balance of reporting. During 2021, boys accounted for about 64% of reports, compared to girls who accounted for 32% of reports. This year, boys are again the highest reporters, but with a smaller change in number, with about 47% of reports, while girls account for about 42% of total reports," the report states, where in 11% of cases the gender of the reporters could not be determined.
According to data published by this platform, the main age group most affected by abuse, bullying or hate speech, etc., on the internet is 18-30 years old with 52 reports, followed by 15-17 years old with 45 cases, as well as children from 11-14 years old with 21 cases. " Meanwhile, there were 3 reports from children in the 7-10 age group, 7 reports from adults over 31 years old, as well as 22 cases from children or persons who have not declared their age," the report states, among other things.
" The ones we are receiving serious incidents on are Instagram, Snapchat and Telegram ," says the head of CRACA, Altin Hazizaj, adding that highly followed pages on social networks also remain a problem.
Hazizaj places a special emphasis on schools, stressing that they have lost control over students' technological devices.
" The cases we have received this year, which have never happened before, of online bullying against teachers, against the X class, against the school, against the principal, show that schools are totally unprepared to deal with bullying and explain the consequences to the child," he says, adding that neither the school nor the family has managed to teach the child communication.
"The Ministry of Education has been saying for 2 years that our schools are safe schools and supposedly there is a program for safe schools. I can say with conviction that the ministry is dreaming, because from what we have understood from all the complaints we receive every day from children, schools, like the internet itself, are not safe for children. Gramshi's case is a typical case. Things progressed inside the school, no one dealt with what had happened, the children went outside, they were killed," concludes Hazizaj.
According to the results of a survey published by the Institute of Statistics, for the year 2022 it appears that 99% of individuals have used a mobile device to access the Internet. Among them, frequent Internet users who use the Internet frequently during the day represent 9%. The conducted survey includes the age of 91.6-16 years.
Police: There are reports, but no life consequences
Cases of violence, which has gone from an aggravated communication on social networks to physical violence, have not been missing. Just a short time ago, a student lost his life after a conflict started on social networks that then turned into a physical confrontation. Meanwhile, in the capital, another young man, only 21 years old after a conflict on social networks, lost his life in a physical collision while returning from work.
The State Police states that the most frequent cases in terms of conflicts on social networks are in the age group of 15-18 years, which accounts for about 70% of cases. " From the age of 19 to 35 years old, 25% of cases are reported and 5% are reported by people over 40 years old.", says the police, which adds that there are not many cases, but during the first 6 months of 2023 there are a total of 54 cases in total.
" Regarding these cases, no conflict has had life-threatening consequences," the police said in a statement to "Sinjalizo".
The need for education in technological communication is great
Sociologist Gëzim Tushi says that social networks have begun to become an additional factor in expanding the scope of conflicts. " The forms of harassment, verbal harassment, bullying, bring conflicts that begin as virtual conflicts between children and adolescents and then turn into real conflicts", he says. The sociologist says that technology is not to blame, but it is the way adolescents and minors use it. " A techno-prophecy that is spreading widely in Albanian society, according to which children should be involved in all social networks, and this is even considered a sign of their intellectual superiority without considering the consequences that they bring in the way their personality is built or deformed", says Gëzim Tushi, for "Sinjalizo".
Meanwhile, clinical psychologist Desdemona Çelo, from her experience, states that what is observed in children and young people is that minors create a wrong perception of the way of life and do not value the things they have. " Studies have shown that there is an increase in violent behavior based on the social networks that young people use, because there they can lose confidentiality, anonymity, personal photos can be shared, bullying, and of course these are aspects of violence and verbal violence can then turn into violence after social networks," she says.
For the sociologist Tushi, the time has come for us to change the concept we have of how we can make children citizens, humane, social beings who know how to love themselves, others, know how to respect relationships, participate in structural life, in the main institutions of moral security such as family and school.
" In this context, I am a partisan of the thesis that it is necessary for our children in school to be taught, to sculpt a system of necessary human knowledge, whether when it comes to sexual education that has begun to be discussed in schools, but the time has come when we must have a system of values regarding how we communicate in today's time, when the verbal and non-verbal systems of electronic and real communication have mixed in a chaotic way and it is now difficult for humans to establish precise regulations," says sociologist Tushi.
" Prevention always starts with information," says psychologist Çela, who adds that it is necessary to explain to minors and adolescents that social networks have not only positive but also negative sides. " Even in school environments, children can be made aware and helped about what happens on social networks, in teaching, why not have a specific subject, which would be dealt with specifically and would be focused on social networks and young people would understand it, more specifically and share their experiences to understand what the world of social networks is like," she concludes.
