Colombia. Patchers is how the telecommunications operator Tigo has called a web series of 5 chapters that frames its campaign through which it seeks to protect and educate minors about the challenges and opportunities they can find in the digital world.
The web series recreates stories of six young people who face common themes such as cyberbullying, harassment, sexuality, education, excessive internet use, security and mediation.
Marcelo Cataldo, president of Tigo, told TVyVideo+Radio that the campaign is part of his social responsibility strategy Contigo Conectados, and the series responds to the last year of work through which 611 employees of the company, as volunteers, visited 200 schools in 34 cities in Colombia, impacting 120 thousand children, talking about these issues.
In addition, the company carried out in conjunction with eafit University a study on the risks and opportunities in the use of the Internet by children under 16 years of age, which showed among the main risks:
- Excessive use of the internet
- display of sexual images
- displaying potentially harmful content
- Contact with unknown people, 30% said they had met strangers
- Receiving sexual messages
- Cyberbullying, 35% of respondents claimed to have been a victim
Based on those responses, the company developed Patchers, in order to continue its social responsibility strategy and promote the responsible and creative use of the internet. The web series can be seen on Youtube and the page Contigo Conectados, every three weeks a new chapter will be published.
Finally, Marcelo Cataldo told TVyVideo+Radio that Colombia owes a great debt to internet penetration, since today it only reaches 50% of the population, mainly in cities.
