Children on the web, parents' duty of vigilance is extended
Access to the Internet is becoming increasingly precocious and the age of those committing offences online is falling. Increasing number of verdicts awarding damages to victims and condemning those whose duty it is to educate
3' min read
3' min read
Children creating defamatory profiles or sharing intimate content online without the victim's consent. And parents who are increasingly called to account (in civil proceedings) for the damage caused by their children using social networks or, in any case, the Internet. This is one of the pathological effects of access to the web and technology, which emerges by analysing the most recent court decisions.
The Internet offers young people valuable opportunities, in terms of disseminating knowledge and educational tools, but it also lends itself to abuse. The judgments go in the direction of extensive enforcement of the parental duty of vigilance, not least because the age of those committing offences online is dropping dramatically.
The situation
.After all, access to the Internet and devices by minors is becoming increasingly precocious. This is revealed by studies conducted in recent years by various organisations. Starting with Save the Children, which in 2023 dedicated its Atlas of Childhood to the 'Digital Times', from which it emerged that 44.6% of minors between the ages of 6 and 10 declared that they connected to the Internet on a daily basis. According to ISTAT surveys, 36.3 per cent of 11 to 13 year olds are online with friends continuously or several times a day, while among 14 to 16 year olds the share grows to 52.4 per cent.
A study promoted by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy with the scientific collaboration of the Catholic University opens a window on the risks of the Internet for minors, showing that four out of ten interviewees have had negative experiences online. And the phenomenon of cyberbullying, monitored by the latest Hbsc survey, coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, is on the rise: among 11-year-olds, 17.2% of males and 21.1% of females claim to have been victims of such acts.
In the face of this reality, parents' duty of vigilance is reinforced and liability for 'culpa in educando' is difficult to exclude. If they are summoned to court, parents must prove that they did everything possible to prevent their children from committing offences, but proof is often impossible to give, since for judges certain facts denote a serious lack of education in themselves. In essence, this is a presumption of parental guilt that can only be overcome if one can prove that they have given their children an education in keeping with their social and family circumstances and that they have exercised age-appropriate supervision. And it must be considered that the lower the age of access to the Internet, the greater the duty of supervision.
