Meu primeiro celular: competência crítica em informação para crianças

Abstract

The early and prolonged access of children into the online universe draws attention to the importance of the development of skills so they enjoy the opportunities offered by the digital environment, as well as protect themselves from the risks. The pandemic of the new coronavirus, and the consequent social isolation, changed the habits of children in the use of the ICTs, mainly the time they spend online. This work aims, first, to deconstruct the common sense that reverberates that the “digital natives” are born ready to use electronic equipment because they demonstrate instrumental skills in the daily handling of screens, the mobile being the most common one. For this, we base ourselves in the concept of critical information literacy to advocate the need for children to develop a critical attitude to deal in safe, ethical and healthy ways with a series of phenomena to which they are exposed when they become consumers and producers of information. The general objective of this work is to investigate and analyze the strategies that fathers and mothers of children between 8 years old and 12 years old use to promote the critical information literacy of sons and daughters in the use of smartphones. Regarding the methodology, this is a qualitative research that included, in addition to the bibliographical review covering the fields of Information Science, Social Communication, Philosophy and Pedagogy, the analysis of the empirical data obtained through the application of 154 questionnaires and the realization of 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews, both digitally accomplished. The responses were evaluated based on categories that cover the types of use of the mobile, the time children spend using the device and the way in which parental mediation is conducted. We found that, although some strategies are more focused on restricting the use of the smartphone to avoid its risks, some parents stablish a dialogue to raise awareness on ICTs use, approaching the fundaments of critical information literacy and critical pedagogy.