The Social Participation, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (Cipadi) of Brazilian Communication Company (EBC) deliberated a recommendation to the company’s vehicles regarding the treatment of children and adolescents. The deliberation recommends that the term “minor” be avoided, that they be treated as “children” and “adolescents” or “variations, such as boy(s), girl(s), boy(s).
According to the resolution, the expression “minor” must be used in a contextualized manner, that is, when referring to legal issues involving these subjects, but in a specific manner, avoiding repetitions in the text and in materials for social media”.
The recommendation follows a larger campaign that several entities have been waging to remind us that we should not call children and adolescents minors, says one of the resolution’s rapporteurs, Juliana Doretto, from the Brazilian Association of Journalism Researchers (SBPJor).
“People who have been studying the representation of children and adolescents in the media defend the non-use of the term minor for the sake of constructing and deconstructing stereotypes. The term “minor” refers to the Minors Code, a legislation that was replaced by the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA). The ECA establishes the idea that children and adolescents are subjects of rights, the Minors Code had a punitive vision.”
“Due to all the repercussion that there was from ECA Digital, we saw that many media outlets returned to using this stigmatizing term, hence the resolution”, explains Karina Gomes Barbosa, from the Brazilian Federation of Scientific and Academic Communication Associations.
