EL PAÍS photographer Fernando Domingo-Aldama took the photos Sole Dominguez And his family in his own apartment in Getkho (Bizkaia). When he finished, two children, aged seven and five, ran to see how the portraits appeared on the camera screen. “No!” Cried Sole, but it was already late. The photographer was already showing the pictures taken by them one by one.

The Combat screens At Solis House, a 44-year-old lawyer at the bank and his partner, Inigo, has several reasons and specific goals. Although her children (both boys) will be eight and six years old this year, they are still small and she is now three years pregnant. The advent of cell phones in their lives still seems distant, but Dominguez is already preparing for that moment with compelling arguments.

To date, the scientific evidence is compelling Zero screens for up to two years“Evolutionary psychology requires at least a complete moratorium for the first two years of life, no exposure,” said Arminda Suarez, a professor in the Department of Didactics and Educational Research at La Laguna University. From there, the advantage is Small screen for ages six to sevenAnd always with content adapted to their age and under parental control.

Together with his family, Dominguez chose to minimize this exposure by the following key criteria:

1. Parents must agree

Screens are everywhere today. A prerequisite for Dominguez is an attempt to restrain their home, is for parents not only to control them, but to barely use them: “Parents need to be disciplined. “Neither Inigo nor I have been overly technological people,” he said. “I do not have Whatsapp. I had it for a while and I noticed that there was a constant delay. Inigo never had WhatsApp. “He has Facebook because he uses it for work, but we are not friends on Facebook,” he added.

The next goal is Give an example: Do not use screens in the presence of children. “When I am with my children, the phone is usually silent. If it’s an urgent call, I’ll try to do it without them being there. If we can be in the park, I will stand aside. But I never look at the screen in front of me with my children. When they see a cell phone, it does not get their attention because they do not know what is there. Inigo does not have a smartphone, he has a mobile phone to call and send SMS, ”he explains.

2. But why all this

In addition to being not so technological, Dominguez had it Small relationship usually with television After he left the family. The screens made a small contribution. In addition, when her children were born, she informed herself: “When I was first born in 2014, I started to inform myself a little bit. I have found studies that say it is better for children under the age of two not to see screens. “My children did not watch anything on TV until they were two years old.”

Neither TV nor anything: “Mobile Zero. We do not have a tablet. “The computer is also zero,” he said.

For the first two years, Dominguez explained his reasons in some way: “I am not an anti-screen but a stupid anti-screen And, above all, I am In favor of awakening the ability to concentrate. I like it when my kids are busy with something, they are focused on that. I would have taken it out if I had made a film and they did not pay attention to it. “

Suarez, a teacher, contextualizes Dominguez’s motives: “From two to five or six years, very measured exposure is acceptable, always in the presence of parents. Tablets and mobile phones should be avoided from the scientific literature as they can impede cognitive development and overstimulate stimulation.

3. What is a week like without screens?

The theory is very good. Practice is lacking. The family spends a lot of time planning moments with and without screens. Children learn music from Monday to Thursday in Chinese, Russian and French. Also, during the week, “they play, read, go to the park, paint, see friends,” he lists.

The Screens arrive on weekends, always under strict control: “On weekends we watch a movie, a lot of classic and adventure movies: The great dictator, In search of fire, White skirts and madness, Indiana Jones. There are movies that we have to stop and And“Explain something to them.”

Some chapters of the drawings arrive on holidays, but are always chosen by the parents without the participation of the little ones and On TV, without an endless supply of YouTube or Netflix: “On Saturday morning I put the cartoon on DVD in French and on Sunday I put two episodes. Bandit “Recalls Dominguez. “What I try to do as much as possible is that they do not see advertisements. I put it this way: it starts here and it ends here. “I do not post a YouTube video that shows a hundred thousand things,” he described.

4. The meaning of reality

In addition to concentration, there is another concern of Dominguez False perception of reality offered by screens. “I want my children to have contact with reality, with real images of objects, to develop 3D vision and to see the natural color of objects,” he says. “Small cartoons on a mobile phone have some colors, brightness, lighting, that later reality, nature seems very boring,” he assures us.

The Excessive stimulation has obvious challenges, according to a recent study: “Images and music can cause excessive stimulation and problems in the development of learning. They primarily interfere with concentration, incompleteness of activities. “Because he is very stimulated, he has to move quickly from one activity to another and be constantly motivated by games and activities,” Suarez said.

5. What if it was weird?

His family’s attitude towards screens was brought about by Dominguez He had to explain himself to other families who treated him as a freak Or anti-progress: “I was told I was against progress. To doProgress was it? ”He asks. “I do not feel strange. “This is a way of raising your children that is personal and personal and that people do not usually judge,” he said.

But deep down, their preferences make other families jealous: “Yes, they ask you a little, but why? For many reasons, especially I want my children to develop critical thinking. ᲛExample. Yesterday my eldest son told me: “Mom, we sang in class and one of my classmates said that He did not like it because he did not have it Like‘. “I had to explain to him whether I like something or not, it depends on more sophisticated parameters, other than numerical criteria, and above all that I do not like or dislike things, but I like it or not,” he added. .

6. Video games are also zero

The Video games are included, logically, in the list of unwanted screens For Dominguez. “I think they are the most exciting, addictive thing. “Video games are generally designed for that. If you want to have a bored child, leave the console for three hours,” he said. “When he plays and destroys his enemies, he is attacked. “With adrenaline and extra stimulus, in my taste, unnecessary,” he emphasizes.

He obviously prefers a more traditional game: “I like to play. They usually play wars and adventures with their soldiers and pirates. They have Lego, Playmobil, card games, board games. Children need time and attention. The child is not going to tell you, father, get out of here, I would rather watch a movie than play with me. “

7. Who controls the school

Despite the control of this house, a few days ago a senior came from school and said they were playing Minecraft, A very famous video game. Dominguez was not happy.

“There are no regulations in the school, but it is good, the teachers were in the classroom and I also had teachers who beat me. The public is moving forward and I believe that at some point the time and content of the exposure will also be regulated“Because you are at the expense of what a teacher or educator wants,” he criticizes. “There is also a person who conducts ICT [nuevas tecnologías] And I will explain to you that it is pedagogical that paw patrol This is pedagogical. Everything can have a pedagogical purpose. I’m not saying that is not the case, but [Rafael Sánchez] Ferlosio has already said that Disney has caused more brain cancer than anything else in the minds of children. “- he adds.

Although some computer resources are also mentioned for the first time in school: “The headmaster studies Word, Google and searches for what interests him. You will not be digitally uneducated“, He assures us.

8. When will the age of the mobile come?

The children of Sol and Inigo are still small. But the age of the first cell phone is approaching. 12 years after graduating from the institute, This is the usual age in Spain. For Professor Arminda Suarez, the challenge of the mobile phone is not so much the device itself as the social networks: “Adults create their own personality, self-esteem. If all this happens negatively in the presence of networks, this perception will also be negative. ” In his opinion, blocking access to networks is good: it is better to “use a useful phone (only for communication with parents) without Internet”, he advises.

Dominguez I will try to wait until 18. “My wish will be my children They did not have a mobile phone until they were 18 years old. Just like they can not drink alcohol. Mobile is a mechanism of addiction: to video games, to social networks, which can cause anxiety. “It seems to me that this is a very powerful device for minors to have something so complex that they have access to all kinds of content,” he said.

“Why does a child need a smartphone?? Because if you tell me, call and send messages to friends, but that’s not the case. They want it to reveal their image, their privacy, in order to deal with the networks themselves. There come a lot of problems that I do not want to see. “A 16-year-old boy is deprived of his mobile phone and his reaction is like a drug addict when he is taken away,” he said.