Parents’ Day with ‘Vivi Internet, al meglio’: three afternoons on digital education with Nicoletta Vulpettita Vulpetti
The Ciampino Parents’ Association has been in existence for three years. It arose from a practical need: parents felt they did not have enough tools to guide their children through the digital world, and thought that this shortcoming was likely shared by others. So they set out to do something, both for themselves and for other families in the area.
On 6 June, in the Pietro Nenni Council Chamber, the third and final session of Parents’ Day took place as part of Vivi Internet, al meglio, the Google.org programme run in partnership with the Fondazione Mondo Digitale. Over the course of two hours, parents and children came together to discuss privacy, digital identity and how to foster a more mindful use of screens within the relationship between adults and young people.
Silvia, one of the participants, put it perfectly: she has a 9-year-old son and approaches these issues with curiosity, difficulty and a sense of inadequacy. Three words that many parents will probably recognise, even those who wouldn’t say them out loud. That’s why these meetings are so important: not because anyone has the right answers, but because it’s reassuring to know that others are asking the same questions.
The first part of the session revisited the themes of the series – privacy, personal data, digital identity – with the central theme we reiterate at every opportunity: it’s one thing to own the technology, quite another to know what to do with it. And the role of adults, in this context too, is to act as guides, to be there, even before they have all the answers.
This was followed by the workshop. Parents on one side, young people on the other, the same task for everyone: to imagine an object of the future that solves the problems of privacy and digital security. Paper and felt-tip pens, as always.
And as always, the results are surprising. There’s Nascondi.me, an app that blurs your image before anyone takes a photo, and which, after the photo’s been taken, lets you control where your face appears. There’s Aspira-dat, which works like a vacuum cleaner but, instead of dust, sucks up the fake data circulating online. There’s the Super Recorder, a little ball that turns into a USB stick: it smiles if what you’re about to do online is right, and looks sad if it isn’t – a tool to help guide you when you’re not sure whether to trust what you see. There’s The Real Me, a lens that uses colour contrast to show you what others see in you, and lets you choose what you want to reveal. There’s Hacker-Buster, a robot that enters your phone and protects both your data and your device. There’s App-Shield, a camera filter that encrypts images and makes them visible only to those authorised to decrypt them. There are The Glasses of Knowledge, which allow you to access another person’s profile only gradually, based on the quality of the relationship you build, because even in the virtual world it takes time to really get to know someone. And then there is the Magic Fairy: she works her magic, the bad things go away, and she brings freedom and happiness.
Three events, three organisations, three different neighbourhoods: Esquilino, Via Latina, Ciampino. Each time, around twenty people who have chosen to spend an afternoon reflecting together on a difficult issue, and who go home with something extra: a question, a realisation, a few answers.
And that’s no small thing.
The story is by Nicoletta Vulpetti.
