Author: Denis TAHIRI
"I have 9K followers. I found out about it from my neighbors. They use it more to watch matches 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 like Naruto a lot, then I publish others. At first it was difficult, as my mother did not allow me to spend a lot of time on her phone, but now that I have been given one, it is 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 Andy's mother, who is a lawyer by profession.
"At first we also installed parental control apps, but they serve to block a part of what can be found online and after talking with my husband, we came to the conclusion that it was better to allow it without showing resistance in front of him, since we would have easier to even check what he was doing online," concludes her story for "Sinjalizo", the mother of the 11-year-old.
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.
"Throughout 2022 there is a change in the balance of reporting. Throughout 2021, boys made up about 64% of reports, compared to girls who made up 32% of reports. Even this year, boys are again the highest reporters, but with a smaller difference in number, with about 47% of the reports, while girls make up about 42% of the total reports. it is stated in the report, where in 11% of cases it was not possible to determine the gender of the reporters.
According to the data published by this platform, the main and most affected age 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 aged 11-14 with 21 cases. "Meanwhile, there were 3 reports from children in the age group of 7-10 years, 7 reports from adults over 31 years old, as well as 22 cases from children or persons who did not declare their age. the report states, among other things.
"The ones we are getting incidents that are serious is instagram, snapchat and telegram”, says the head of CRACA, Altin Hazizaj, adding that the highly followed pages on social networks remain a problem.
Hazizaj places a special emphasis on schools, stressing that they have lost control over students' technological devices.
"The cases that we have received this year, it has never happened before, of online bullying against teachers, against x class, against the school, against the principal, shows that the 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 it is supposed that there is a program for safe schools. I say with conviction that the ministry is dreaming, that from what we have understood from all the complaints we receive every day from children, schools as well as the Internet itself are not safe for children. The case of Gramsci is a typical case. Things progressed inside the school, no one dealt with what had happened, the children came out, 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 cases in terms of conflicts on social networks are between the ages of 15-18, which account for about 70% of cases. "Between the ages of 19 and 35, 25% of the cases are accounted for, and 5% are over 40 years old.", it is said by the police, who adds that there are not many cases, but during the first 6 months of 2023 there are a total of 54 cases in total.
"As far as these cases are concerned, no conflict has had consequences for life". says the police in the statement for "Signal".
The need for education in technological communication is great
Sociologist Gëzim Tushi says that social networks have started to become an additional factor in expanding the field of conflicts. "The forms of harassment, verbal harassment, bullying, bring conflicts that start as virtual conflicts between children and teenagers and then turn into real conflicts". he says. The sociologist says that technology is not to blame, but it is the way teenagers and minors use it. "A technoprophecy that is spreading widely in Albanian society, according to which children should be involved in all social networks, even this is considered as a sign of their intellectual superiority without counting the consequences they bring in the way the personality is built or deformed theirs", says Gëzim Tushi, for "Signalizo".
Meanwhile, the clinical psychologist, Desdemona Çelo, says from her experience that what is noticed in children and young people is that minors create a wrong perception about the way of life and do not appreciate 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 definitely these are aspects of violence and a violence verbal abuse can then turn into violence on social media," 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 supporter of the thesis that it is necessary to bring to our children in school, to sculpt a system of necessary humane knowledge, whether it is when it comes to sexual education that has started to be talked about in schools, but the time has come that we must have a system of values related to how to communicate in today's time, when the verbal and non-verbal system of electronic communication and real communication are mixed in a chaotic way and it is difficult for a person 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 teenagers that social networks have not only positive but also negative sides. "Even in school settings, children can be made aware and helped about what happens in social networks, in teaching, why couldn't it be a certain subject, which would be taken precisely and would be focused on social networks and young people understand, more concretely and share their experiences to understand how the world of social networks is". she concludes.
