Social conviction is increasing that it is advisable to limit the use of mobile phones up to a minimum age. The “consumption” of pornography, harassment of peers, credulity in the face of certain fake news... All of this, together with the clamor of experts, will end up motivating legislation that limits the availability of devices in childhood. However, the emergence of new risks such as universal access to artificial intelligence software or the impact of certain intentional and structured misinformation on social networks requires a solid education of the critical spirit. The advancement of technologies and the always possible perverse use of them is surpassing regulators and this leaves a period of time that can be lethal between developments and possible regulations. Becoming aware of this new accelerated reality can only lead us to foster the critical spirit of children and adolescents and also in the different stages of people's lives.
Today it is information and communication technologies, but increasingly it will be the life sciences that will provide rapid advances that human nature can end up perverting. A few years ago the professionalism of journalists and the rigor of an editorial line filtered certain misinformation. Today, these fake news are easily generated from a telephone terminal, distributed at high speed and made credible by receiving them from a trusted issuer. Only the bad experiences of some mistakes made, the maturity of each one and the training received lead us to refrain from forwarding doubtful or supposedly interested information. Probably one day, through the same technology, its source will be known and it will be possible to penalize it.
All in all, and while we live the naive period of believing it, of forwarding what we receive even if it is to share curiosity, we are complicit, perhaps involuntary, with unshared intentions of and with third parties. Only the criteria that we may have makes us relativize its content, not join processes of collective lynching and mark distances. Is this capacity for doubt and self-containment possible from the innocent curiosity of the child, the transgressive spirit of the adolescent or the insecurity of many older people?
Research and advancement in all types of technologies are unstoppable today. Unimaginable where the so-called artificial intelligence can reach. The perverse use of networks for the benefit of interest groups such as the global extreme right, pornography multinationals or economic interests of commercial companies, quick to act and difficult to detect, can be very negative.
Only a solid education that accompanies maturity in the different dimensions of the person can protect against constant innovation. Only a strength in convictions can lead us to question what is new that is experienced as sympathetic by the majority. More than protecting, today, it is essential to reveal the critical spirit in educational support.
