Rome, 24 July (LaPresse) – “The criminal liability of minors from the age of 14, with a ‘reversal of the burden of proof’ regarding their capacity to understand and form their own will, is a step that must necessarily be accompanied by holding the relevant adults fully accountable, starting with families, educational institutions and the ‘village’ – the community in which the minor lives”. Marina Terragni, head of the Ombudsman for Children and Adolescents, told LaPresse. “It is above all they,” she adds, “who must prevent young people from committing offences, as they are unlikely to have a full understanding of the boundaries within which they should act – an awareness further diminished by the confusion between the real and the virtual produced by ‘onlife’, where nothing is definitive and everything is reversible – even a stab wound – as in a video game that invades reality. As is readily apparent, the vast majority of issues affecting minors can inevitably be traced back to a failure to fulfil educational responsibilities on the part of families and the environments in which they grow up, not to mention the enormous responsibility that lies with the business model of the major platforms. The effectiveness of the new legislation is therefore necessarily dependent on a general and full realisation of this on the part of the adult world.”
Criminal responsibility of minors: Children’s Ombudsman: “Effective only by holding adults accountable”
Rome, 24 July (LaPresse) – “The criminal liability of minors from the age of 14, with a ‘reversal of the burden of proof’ regarding their capacity to understand and form their own will, is a step that must necessarily be accompanied by holding the relevant adults fully accountable, starting with families, educational institutions and the ‘village’ – the community in which the minor lives”. Marina Terragni, head of the Ombudsman for Children and Adolescents, told LaPresse. “It is above all they,” she adds, “who must prevent young people from committing offences, as they are unlikely to have a full understanding of the boundaries within which they should act – an awareness further diminished by the confusion between the real and the virtual produced by ‘onlife’, where nothing is definitive and everything is reversible – even a stab wound – as in a video game that invades reality. As is readily apparent, the vast majority of issues affecting minors can inevitably be traced back to a failure to fulfil educational responsibilities on the part of families and the environments in which they grow up, not to mention the enormous responsibility that lies with the business model of the major platforms. The effectiveness of the new legislation is therefore necessarily dependent on a general and full realisation of this on the part of the adult world.”
