4. Discussion and conclusions

Broadly speaking, we can affirm that the minors who participated in this study do not follow the rhythm of classic television programming, since they have a preference for consuming audiovisual content on the Internet, especially entertainment, and they connect quite often as evidenced by the fact that more than 93% of them access Internet several times a day, which is the same percentage of those who acknowledge watching music videos.

This first conclusion confirms that in this case, although it is a very specific, concrete, and statistically non-representative study, it also demonstrates the intensive use of Internet by young people, a behaviour exposed in the theoretical introduction of the article and supported by various scholars.

The analysis by Sánchez-Labella Martín (2015: 97) of the relationship with the media can be applied to what was obtained:

Television, since its birth, has been the media that has reached the highest audience numbers, but the appearance of Internet has brought with it the establishment of a new media ecosystem that has revolutionized everything established up until now in the field of media ecology, as well as the way in which individuals relate to them. (…) As once pointed out by Mcluhan, “the content of any media or vehicle is always another media or vehicle” (Mcluhan, 1969, p. 22), but Internet surpasses this reality: more than the content of the previous media it includes the content of all previous media. This factor explains its success, because if “the hybridisation of media releases great force or energy similar to nuclear fusion” (McLuhan, 1969, p. 67), then as the number of forms that merge becomes greater, the higher the energy produced, and therefore, the greater the attraction for human beings (Canavilhas, 2011: 17).

This appeal to which the author refers is also the one observed through the results of this study that involved the participation of minors whose consumption habits focus heavily on fiction, and especially series (75.68% of those surveyed), both in VOD and in open linear television. Most of the series they consume have a rating for people over 16 years of age, in some cases because of the high content of sex and violence, as in the case of Game of Thrones, the second most-watched series among respondents.

These data pose a debate on the effective application of the new rules for audiovisual communication services in the European Union (European Council, 2018), where it is foreseen that online platforms will be required to act to reduce content that encourages violence and/or hatred.

Although this standard of measurement is only a non-binding recommendation, the study highlights the lack of parental control, particularly among 14-year-olds, who confess to watching series rated for people over 16 years of age. This lack of monitoring is evident when three male participants acknowledge having consumed “pornography” online, and 75.68% of the respondents said they had viewed content for persons over 18 years of age.

This social problem that was detected in the results of the survey in this study has been the object of academic research, especially in recent years, and has raised awareness of the increase in the consumption of this type of content among young people at a very early age. An interesting example with regard to Latin America is the study by Rivera, Santos, Cabrera and Docal (2016), which examines whether the lifestyles of adolescents are key predictors of their consumption.