Thomas Feibel: "Self-protection is important"
Children's media expert Thomas Feibel on pitfalls for children in the digital world and how parents can find a healthy balance when it comes to media use.
Mr. Feibel, why is digital education so important for children?
Thomas Feibel: There's a little story about this: a boss complained that a 16-year-old schoolgirl who was working was always writing so cheekily and arrogantly in the work WhatsApp group. The reason: the girl wrote to her employer and coworkers in the same way as she did to her friends. In other words, very directly, without salutations, farewells or other forms of politeness.
The right approach is one of the basic skills of digital communication. For me, this is just as much a part of digital education as mastering the technology. Above all, however, the ability to protect oneself is important to me, because there are numerous pitfalls and dangers lurking online. Almost every school has had negative experiences with cyberbullying or nude images sent by pupils. In addition, there are the rip-off tricks of games or pedophilic adults who try to gain the trust of children.
Your tips for parents - how to deal with digital media?
If we pay attention to regulated times and age-appropriate content, everything is actually fine. However, parents often feel overwhelmed when it comes to parenting and there are always arguments because children and young people simply spend too much time playing games, using social networks and streaming services.
A healthy level is not possible without fixed rules, which are best defined together with the children. This also includes sanctions if the rules are broken. A good tool is the media usage contract. However, setting rules alone is not enough; monitoring compliance remains a laborious business. It is important that parents are consistent, because reliability plays a major role in parenting. They also need to take a critical look at their own role model behavior, for example when using smartphones.
What makes good digital content for children?
The content should be fun and challenging for children without overtaxing them. It should be non-violent and age-appropriate and the requirements for the protection of minors should be taken into account by the FSK for films and the USK for games. Parents often only see the negative side of games. However, they can also promote strategic, logical, solution-oriented and unconventional thinking. And don't forget: Children also play games because they develop skills such as creativity, concentration, perseverance and frustration tolerance. Incidentally, console games are often expensive, but today they can also be borrowed from many public libraries.
You say that young people need to learn different reading skills right from the start. What exactly do you mean by that?
Every medium requires its own reading skills. If you can read books and magazines, you won't get any further with this skill when playing "Fortnite", for example. Games require their own reading skills. The same applies to the internet, social networks and many other digital offerings.
About Thomas Feibel
"The use of the internet must be accompanied by healthy mistrust," says children's media expert and journalist Thomas Feibel.
His books for children and young people deal with topics such as cyberbullying, fake news and social networks. His book "Mach deinen Medienführerschein" was published in 2019.
