Adult supervision alone is not enough. To guide children and teenagers through digital environments, we need rules and responsibility, but above all, we need listening, dialogue and opportunities for mutual learning across generations.
This is the central theme of the new article by Mirta Michilli, Director-General of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, published in the magazine Agenda Digitale under the title “Digital education: supervision is not enough – we need to listen”.
The article takes its cue from a number of recent developments that appear to be shifting the debate on media and minors: initiatives aimed directly at teenagers, campaigns dedicated to future parents, and new cultural narratives that encourage us not to view technology as an enemy, but to reflect on the quality of relationships, play and time spent together.
The role of adults is also changing. Today’s parents are the first generation to have grown up with the internet, social media and smartphones, whilst their children inhabit the digital world as a natural part of their existence. In an ever-changing environment, education no longer means transferring knowledge that has already been acquired, but learning together how to navigate complexity.
For twenty-five years, the Fondazione Mondo Digitale has been exploring this approach through intergenerational programmes, school workshops, collaborative challenges and digital citizenship courses. From Grandparents on the Internet, relaunched today as the NOI. Beyond Grandparents on the Internet project, right through to the Museum of Objects of the Future workshop held at RomeCup 2026, young people and adults are not merely recipients of rules, but partners capable of jointly devising solutions and new ways of living in the present.
“Digital education means, first and foremost, educating together,” writes Mirta Michilli. This is the intergenerational alliance we need: a community in which different experiences, skills, questions and languages come together to build a more informed digital citizenship.
Read the full article on Agenda Digitale
Digital education: control is not enough – we need to listen
The debate on media and children is shifting from mere adult supervision to the development of an educational dialogue between generations. From families to schools, right through to digital citizenship workshops, there is a growing need to learn together how to navigate digital environments
Mirta Michilli
Digital Agenda, 30 July 2026
