At the end of March, the first youth zone in the state of Querétaro will be inaugurated. It will be located in the capital city. It will have recreational areas, as well as areas for entrepreneurship and psychological care, as part of Governor Mauricio Kuri’s strategy to promote the physical, emotional and social well-being of girls, boys and adolescents.
Virginia Hernández Vázquez, Secretary of Youth in Querétaro, said that for months they have been working on the rehabilitation of the space where the zone will be located, as well as on the recovery of parks, together with residents of the neighborhoods where they are located, to provide recreational spaces for citizens.
The secretary added that, as part of the governor’s new strategy, they are working with the municipalities on a project that will allow young people to have decent spaces for coexistence and healthy recreation.
“Soon the governor will be inaugurating the first youth zone in the municipality of Querétaro. It is a project that when he told us about this law or the intention he had, it was decided to allocate this space for that, a comprehensive center where young people can carry out different activities, can undertake, can have access to mental health, health, sports, culture, that it really is a space where they can carry out different activities and the plan that is being made with the different municipalities is to replicate this same thing, in addition to rehabilitating these spaces for healthy recreation,” he added.
Hernández Vázquez commented that it will be the governor who announces the launch of said comprehensive center, although he said that the space has multipurpose rooms, spaces for coworking, mental health clinics and sports spaces, among others. He indicated that, once it is inaugurated, all the activities that take place will be free.
“The joke here is also to hold different events and different cultural programs, classes, that every week there are different workshops, different classes so that young people can be there making the most of it, using their free time for what they really have to use it for. It will be operated by the secretariat,” she said.
The call is part of the International Youth Day
Virginia Hernández recalled that 70% of the 373 thousand people between 8 and 17 years old who live in Querétaro have access to social networks, so actions were taken to regulate the access of minors to social networks; she added that most young people spend between 4 and 5 hours a day on social networks, which exposes this sector to being victims, for example, of cyberbullying that sometimes leads to anxiety behaviors, depression and suicide attempts.
“The issue of pornography is also a very worrying issue, contact with pornography usually occurs between the ages of 9 and 12, and 9 out of 10 young people consume it through their phone, so many times parents do not know what their children are watching and there are ‘n’ number of consequences of our young people consuming this type of content at such an early age,” he stressed.
He explained that another concern of the government authorities is child trafficking, as he detailed that it is known that 62% of trafficking victims were contacted through social networks, with Facebook and Instagram being the two social networks most used to commit this crime.
“We have to, yes or yes, regulate this digital world, prevent, this law is not about prohibiting but about preventing and really raising awareness of the risks behind the digital world, what is behind social networks, in order to take care of our girls, boys and adolescents,” he added.
Source: oem
