A large advertising billboard positioned in via Melchiorre Gioia in Milan has reignited the national debate on the use of technology in the first years of life. The image portrays a child of about two years old with baby food-stained hands holding an iPhone, accompanied by the claim Everything ok, it’s iPhone (Italian version of the original Relax, It is iPhone). In the intentions of the creatives, the campaign had to reassure consumers about the resistance of the device to impacts and dirt caused by a clumsy newborn.
However, the operation turned into a sensational communicative own goal which soon spread on social media and in the media, indignant users. In fact, it is an advertisement that ignores the growing concern of parents and educators about the risks of early exposure to technology, proposing the device as a sort of digital pacifier and transforming a tool with high dopaminergic involvement into an object of daily use for early childhood.
@Childhood Guarantor
The consequences on cognitive development and social pressure
The impact of such an advertising message is part of an already critical social context that governments around the world are trying to stem. According to survey data Digital ChildrenIn fact, 61.4% of minors between zero and six years use a screen daily and over 41% have their first contact with a tablet or smartphone between the ages of two and three.
Presenting a preschool child with a phone worth over a thousand euros not only serves to reassure about the solidity of the product, but ends up normalizing screen addiction at a stage in which the child’s brain needs sensory exploration, movement and direct human relationships. Associating social inclusion and serenity with the possession of a prestigious object hinders the educational work of families, who try with difficulty to postpone the use of personal devices.
A distorted educational model that threatens childhood
Promote the idea that it is Everything is OK when a very small child handles a smartphone it means conveying a distorted vision of growth. Commercial communication is not limited to selling a technological good, but defines what society considers acceptable and desirable.
Making people believe that entrusting a device to a newborn is a harmless or even protective choice undermines the indications of the Italian Society of Paediatrics and the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, which recommend completely avoiding screens under two years of age. A child does not need a digital interface to manage boredom or tantrums, but the emotional guidance of adults. Getting the message across that a virtual living environment can replace real experience represents a dangerous cultural retreat that risks damaging the cognitive and relational development of the little ones.
The complaint from Codacons and the intervention of the Guarantor Authority
Faced with the spread of the billboard promoted in Italy with the Tim logo, the institutions for the protection of minors have mobilized. The Guarantor Authority for children and adolescents, led by Marina Terragni, accepted the report of a citizen and denounced the normalization of electronic babysitting, officially reporting the case to Agcom, Agcm and the Iap to verify any ethical and commercial violations.
At the same time, Codacons filed a formal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Milan, requesting urgent checks to protect consumers and minors. According to the consumer association, reassure the public with the phrase Everything OK faced with a behavior that the health authorities warn against constitutes an incorrect and potentially harmful message for families.
