The death of the 10-year-old girl from Palermo, probably the victim of a challenge on Tiktok, leaves everyone dismayed and questions grow on how
to
concretely intervene
to protect minors on social networks
, also through legal regulations as hypothesized by parliamentarians and consumer associations .
The autopsy confirmed that the little girl died of asphyxiation, precisely because of that belt around her neck, following - as the investigators hypothesize - the rules of a
challenge
that on the social network assigns the victory to those who resist the most without breathing.
Investigators are trying to unlock the girl's cell phone to see if someone has pushed her to participate in the game.
It's a'
now global emergency is that of extreme challenges on social networks
, which often break young lives, such as, in these hours, that of
a 17-year-old boy who died in Pakistan
overwhelmed by a train while he was making a video to post on TitTok.
And the disappearance of
a 16-year-old from Regello (Florence)
seems linked to the use of the Chinese platform
, whom her parents have been looking for since January 14
and now claim she ran away with a peer she met on the social network, who in turn disappeared from the province of Pisa. .
The latter on TikTok would have many followers and in the past she would have been accused of bullying a disabled young man, forcing him to undress on Instagram.
Now the political world and various associations are wondering about possible interventions to protect the little ones even if the issue is not limited only to them.
The Guarantor has blocked the processing of data of the offending profiles on
Tiktok, which now promises to be working
to protect privacy and security.
However, there are many who
ask for more stringent measures to verify the age of members of the member
, such as the use of the Spid.
A national legislation regulating access to social networks is, however, considered difficult to implement by the lawyer Alessandro Del Ninno, an expert in Information & Communication Technology.
"The EU regulation on the protection of personal data provides ample powers for national authorities - says Del Ninno in an interview with ANSA -, such as blocking the processing of data acquired in a way that does not comply with the principles set out in the regulation itself. Italiana has established that
from the age of 14 you are authorized to provide this consent on your own.
For those under 14, it must be the holders of parental responsibility who do so. From here was born the blocking of accounts for which TikTok
could not document the verification age limits and the acquisition of valid consent ".
"It is very difficult - he adds - to implement measures that make, for example, the registration to the sending of a scan of a document or to the use of the Spid or a Pec. When we talk about technologies at a global level, it is very complicated to stiffen services that base its success in terms of ease of use.
From here to say that there are no rules, it passes
: with the aforementioned regulation, the far west of social media is more difficult than someone fears, as demonstrated by the intervention of the Guarantor on a supplier, such as Tiktok, which is based in China but is prosecuted for violating the EU regulation ".
According to Del Ninno,
"the cell phone should not be given to children under the age of 12.
The parent who leaves the field free to small children risks being at least inattentive. Beyond the rules, which I repeat there are, parents should always exercise careful control In addition, the state should launch awareness campaigns that have not occurred in these years of great growth of social networks ".