Authors: Maria Carmen Massobele Valcarcel (YMCA Spain), Anthony Hern\u00e1ndez (YMCA Spain), <\/span><\/em>Fatima Ahmad Asaf (GA Last Day). <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Editor: Venelin Dobrev.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n As part of their work with young people, organizations like YMCA Spain and GA Last Day regularly engage in conversations about online behaviour, digital safety, and mental well-being. As part of the Brussels event of Pulse-Z in early November, a discussion took place between representatives from both organisations who spoke with participants about how social media is used by minors, how families set limits, and how constant online exposure affects mental health and everyday communication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The discussion was led by three youth workers, Maria and Anthony, representing YMCA Spain, and Fatima, representing GA Last Day. <\/span>They spoke with participants about social media use, supervision of minors, and the effects of online life on mental health and family communication. In the text below, you will find the main highlights of their conversations throughout the day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the first topics raised in the conversations was related to supervision. When asked whether they monitor the content minors consume online, the answer was clear and positive. The reason was not only safety, but balance.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s healthy to keep track of what content minors consume and how much time they spend on their phones,\u201d<\/span><\/i> participants explained. <\/span>\u201cThey can\u2019t just do whatever they want.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Supervision means less as control and more as guidance, aimed at preventing overuse and helping young people regulate their online habits.<\/span><\/p>\n The questions about supervision led naturally to the topic of age limits. When is the right time for a child to start using social media? One respondent pointed to early adolescence because children start to understand responsibility. They know better what they can and can\u2019t do. Discussions showed that what mattered more was whether young people were ready to handle what social media brings with it.<\/span><\/p>\n Social media influences how people think. You can see it everywhere. In the economy. In fashion. In communication. Social media is something that affects how people understand the world. A big part of that is mental health and comparing yourself to others. Social media expands that circle far beyond what people can process. The issue is not only what is shared, but the scale and frequency of exposure can negatively affect minors because they compare their lives to the \u201cperfect\u201d lives of people online.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How to avoid online harm? Keep your accounts private. Set limits. You don\u2019t have to let everyone into your daily life. Some things have to stay private. Reducing exposure is the first step before handling any complex tools.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Report from Brussels\u00a0 Authors: Maria Carmen Massobele Valcarcel (YMCA Spain), Anthony Hern\u00e1ndez (YMCA Spain), Fatima Ahmad Asaf (GA Last Day). Editor: Venelin Dobrev.\u00a0 As part of their work with young people, organizations like YMCA Spain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1737,"featured_media":82194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[568,687],"tags":[7806,4910,4147],"post_formats":[],"coauthors":[17339,13821,13316,13314],"class_list":["post-82278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-generale","category-gioventu","tag-children-it","tag-mental-health-it","tag-social-media-it"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1737"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82278"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82285,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82278\/revisions\/82285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82278"},{"taxonomy":"post_formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=82278"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pulse-z.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=82278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Supervision and setting limits<\/b><\/h3>\n
How social media shapes how children think\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
Staying safe online<\/b><\/h3>\n