childrens

Mayoral has been manufacturing children’s clothing for almost a century. It is the missing piece for Digi’s IPO to work

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Digi Spain confirmed this Monday that asks to be listed on the Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Bilbao and Valencia stock exchanges with an offer of up to 25% of its capital. The operation is based on an assessment pre-money of 1.7 billion euros and is supported by a binding commitment of 100 million from the Mayoral Group, the Malaga children’s clothing manufacturer of the Domínguez de la Maza family. It is the second attempt in six weeks. In April, Digi postponed the departure because he did not accept a discount greater than 10% on the 2,000 million that he was then seeking. Today he has accepted a bigger cut. Between the lines. The 300 million less valuation in six weeks is the price that the market places today on the fourth operator with its own network in Spain. 15%. Then there is Mayoral. A Malaga textile company subscribing 100 million in a telco before the stock market debut is not usual. The usual thing is a sovereign fund (case of Orange and Vodafone’s fiberCO), an insurer or a family office specialized in infrastructure. If Digi has had to activate a group whose main business is dressing children, it is because the natural buyers of a European telecommunications IPO were not willing to enter into the terms that the telecom wanted, or at least not without a prior anchor. Mayoral fulfills two functions here at the same time: Provide committed capital before setting a price. And it provides Spanish narrative. Digi wants to stop sounding like a low-cost Romanian operator and start sounding like a company with deep ties in the country. The name Domínguez de la Maza helps with that translation, especially in business environments. The figures. The details of the operation make it clear that the IPO does not resolve the balance. Rather, it accompanies him. 1.7 billion. Assessment pre-money. In May there were 2,000. 136 million. Net funds that will come into cash once the placement costs have been deducted. 1,814 million. Group bank debt as of March 31. 400 million. Capex planned only for 2026. 75%. What Zoltán Teszári retains through Digi Communications. Control intact. The net 136 million that the operation will leave does not cover even four months of this year’s capex. Striking. The context. Digi has grown at 20% annually since 2023 and closed 2025 with 929 million in revenue and 175 million in adjusted EBITDA. It has led net additions in fixed and mobile broadband continuously since the end of 2021. It has 14.2 million homes with its own fiber and 11.4 million active lines. The model is known: low rate, 11,700 direct employees without outsourcing customer service (one of the keys to Digi is its commitment to keeping everything internal) and constant capture of ports. It is the operator that has forced Movistar, Vodafone and Orange to react twice in less than three years. The problem starts at the margin. Adjusted EBITDA today moves around 20%. The plan presented to investors promises to raise it to 30% in the medium term. AND the trend is not upward, but downward. Yes, but. Ten margin points without retouching price is mathematically complicated. Furthermore, raising prices contradicts Digi’s entire commercial DNA. The equation only works if two things happen at the same time: The own network reaches 21 million homes ahead of schedule… …and the weight of the wholesale agreement with Telefónica for 5G access is reduced. Capex today for autonomy tomorrow. That is exactly what the 136 million finances. Meanwhile, the Teszári family retains 75% from Bucharest. Going public does not dilute control. And now what. The final price range and date are pending approval of the prospectus by the CNMV. The company is targeting the end of July. Three questions will mark the operation when the book is opened: If the large European funds enter above the implicit price that Mayoral has set with its commitment, or they settle for it. If Digi holds its rate of portability once subjected to quarterly stock scrutiny, with a margin of 20% that the entire market will now be able to read. If Telefónica, Vodafone España and MásOrange interpret the listing as an additional threat or as the first step to put the consolidation of the sector back on the table. The answer will come with the first day of trading. And with the following results. Featured image | Digi In Xataka | Any teleoperator would be worried about making less money with each client. Digi is exactly what you are looking for

In 1999, a farmer donated his land for a children’s playground. Now the city council has sold them for millions for a data center

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There are times when a good deed turns against you. Or against an entire town. In 1999, a Texan farmer named Charles Bland decided it was time to give something back to his town, a small town called Taylor. It occurred to him to donate about 35 hectares of his land to the city of 15,000 inhabitants with one condition: The city council had to use those lands to create a public park. To formalize the transaction, the city paid a symbolic amount of $10 to the farmer. 27 years later, the accounts come out in favor of the city council: it has sold part of the property not to create the promised park, but for a data center from the Blueprint company. The operation? one of 10 million dollars. And the neighbors were quick to light the torches. An offer that could not be refused This story is one of the most bizarre that we have seen in this matter of relationship between cities and data centers. The middle 404 has echoed the situation and the anger that is being aroused by both Bland’s initial objective and the fate of the land and, above all, the vague explanations of the city council is logical. The farmer initially donated his land to the Texas Parks Foundation, a nonprofit organization, with the goal of holding it in trust for future use exclusively as a playground. This is what appears in the documents and in the land deed, but there is a problem: in the following years, the property changed hands. The Parks Foundation gave it to a different nonprofit called the Williamson County Parks Foundation in 2003, but a month later, it gave it to the city itself. In 2008, the land changed hands again after a $15,000 sale to the Taylor Economic Development Corporation (TEDC). According to your page government, it is a non-profit corporation funded by the City of Taylor and, although it is a separate entity, it is the city council that appoints the five members of a Board that change terms every three years. Is this important? Well yes, since as 404 points out, it was this TEDC that, last year, sold part of the plot to Blueprinta company that plans to build a data center next to the town for those aforementioned 10 million euros. For a non-profit, the business has been successful. When they found out about both the sale and the plans to build a data center, the neighbors took to the streets to protest. Not only was the intention of that farmer who gave his land to the city with the sole interest of children having a place to play being violated, but an installation was going to be built that heats the air and that increase the electricity bill for the neighbors. Because of this, the TEDC has published a document in which he explains what is going to be done and what the city is going to get out of all this. They state that Blueprint’s data center will be used “for a wide variety of purposes including data storage, website hosting and artificial intelligence processing” in a facility that will have a total investment of 1,000 million dollars both to construct the main buildings as well as an electricity substation, backup generators and a closed-loop heat cooling system. It’s… too close to the city In a very brief way, The document addresses the complaints and concerns of neighbors referring to a report that ensures that the facilities will comply with everything necessary in terms of emissions and impact on air quality, noise pollution, light pollution, fire risk and water consumption. Always, of course, stating that the risk and consumption is minimal and that everything will go in the best possible way. Yes, the project will be connected to the electrical network for power supply. They expose that there is no way to go back and that, basically, that is what it is. Doesn’t anyone think about the children? The City Council does There will be no park, but it will be a great benefit for the city. As we see in Straight to the Palatethe facility will not occupy the 35 hectares donated by the family, but 21 hectares. The other 14 continue to belong to the city and the intention is to build a barrier to limit the impact that this data center may have on the neighbors. In addition, and as detailed in the aforementioned document, “the City expects to receive up to 30 million in total additional income that can be used to reduce property taxes and invest in streets, sidewalks, parks and other services”. With more conditionals on the list, they say that “the school district projects up to $20 million that could be used to improve facilities, increase teacher salaries and provide a better education for our students.” The truth is that the justification could well come from an episode of ‘The Simpsons’, but if we pay attention to that phrase that points out that, no matter what happens, the decision is irrevocable, the options for the neighbors do not seem very hopeful. The United States is currently experiencing two speeds in this artificial intelligence infrastructure. On the one hand, Big Tech raising monumental data centers. On the other hand, the people and political parties (both Republican and Democrat) that are rising in some states against these facilities. Studies are already appearing that leave aside tabout water consumption (minor one that was talked about a few months ago) as energy consumption (this one is tremendous) to point to the havoc on the environment what these “giant computers” cause. But hey, in the end Taylor won’t have a new park, but he will have a few million that could be used to make a park next to a giant radiator. In Xataka | AI has caused the collapse of even a non-AI industry: gas turbines

The biggest culprit of children’s addiction to screens is not the TikTok algorithm: it is the parents themselves

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Having children seems to activate a part of the brain that forces us to say the repeated phrase “Leave the machine now,” referring to the cell phone or portable game console. Here, logically, concern about the screen time of the little ones monopolizes the conversations of the most current parents, but the reality is that science is beginning to see that the fault for these behaviors really lies with the parents themselves. A reality. The debate over whether children are born “addicted” to technology fades when we look at the empirical evidence. It’s not just that the devices are designed to capture attention; is that a child’s first and most powerful learning algorithm is to observe their parents who spend the day in front of the screen. Bandura’s theory. To understand why the little ones don’t put down the tablet, you first have to travel back a few decades, to psychologist Albert Bandura’s social learning theory. This theoretical framework, widely validated, establishes that children do not learn primarily by what they are told, but by observation and imitation, especially of those they perceive as close and competent, such as their parents. Literally, we are talking about sponges that do not lose detail of anything. Four phases. In order to learn through this route, it is first necessary for the child to pay attention to the behavior of his or her ‘reference’ adult, such as his or her father or mother. From there, he will begin to retain the pattern made by his caregiver in his memory, almost as a normative behavior, and develop the physical ability to imitate the gesture. But it goes further, since by observing reinforcements, such as their parents laughing when they see the cell phone, an association with a positive stimulus is created. This is really important because you see that doing that action is something that is not dangerous at all, but rather fun and enjoyable. Modern pediatrics. Beyond this theory, a recent meta-analysis Published this year in the prestigious journal JAMA Pediatrics, it has analyzed the impact of the use of technology by parents in the presence of their children. This brings together a total of 21 previous investigations and covers 14,900 participants from 10 countries, empirically demonstrating that there is a direct association between the time that parents spend in front of a screen and the time that their children end up spending with them. But in addition, it has also been seen how it can generate a negative impact on children’s cognition or an increase in externalizing behaviors such as tantrums or anxiety. The cell phone on the table. The disconnection created by the smartphone not only creates a role model, but breaks the two-way interaction that children need for healthy brain development. Something relevant is that 70% of parents admit to being distracted by their mobile phone when they are with their children, and here is a study in Pediatrics in 2014 where this phenomenon was observed; This phenomenon has already been observed in the fast food restaurant environment. According to your data40% of parents were so engrossed in their devices during meals that they ignored their children completely. But even worse was when children tried to get their attention, often escalating their behavior, and simply causing parents to respond more physically or verbally when they felt interrupted. The recommendations. The American Pediatric Association is quite clear pointing out that children under 18 months should completely avoid screens, and in the 2 to 5 year age group it can be introduced for a maximum of 1 hour a day and as long as high-quality and accompanied content is watched. Images | hessam nabavi In Xataka | We say we are “depressed” beyond our means: where does the illness end and where does the illness begin?

Argentina wants to get rid of parents who do not pay their children’s pensions. So he kicked them out of the football stadiums

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To enjoy a soccer match in an Argentine stadium it will no longer be enough to have a ticket. From now on, fans must comply another extra requirementequally or even more important: being up to date with your children’s pensions. In an attempt to hit where it hurts most, the football heart of the nation that gave birth to Maradona, Messi or Di Estéfano, the authorities have activated a system that prohibits access to the fields to parents who ignore the costs of feeding their children. The Government has 13,000 people in its sights, defaulters whom it just got complicated for them also the USA World Cup. “They don’t enter the fields anymore”. The phrase is from Alejandra Monteoliva, Minister of National Security, who recently announced, via Xthe decision to close the stadium doors to those who are not up to date with their pensions. “Delinquent food debtors no longer enter the fields. Starting today, together with the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, we incorporate debtors into the Safe Tribune program. And they will no longer be able to go in to watch a soccer game,” explains Monteoliva before underlining the basic idea: “He who does not comply with his children, off the courts.” Is it something new? Yes. And no. ‘Safe Tribunes’ It is not a new program. Carry years applying in Argentina and its objective is to reinforce access control to sports events, although until now the focus has been focused mainly on violent fans, accused, convicted or with arrest warrants. It is basically dedicated to checking the documentation of those who go to the camps to check their history or even if they are carrying drugs or knives. For a while now some jurisdictions of the country, as Buenos Airesalso decided to veto sporting events for those who do not comply with the alimony of their minor children. As a reference, the Buenos Aires authorities they assure that since March 2025, 173 controls have been carried out that have made it possible to identify 150 “delinquent food debtors”, fans who were prevented from accessing stadiums or concerts. “So far in 2026 alone, 84 have already been carried out with 75 offenders.” What’s new then? That Argentina has decided to go one step further, combining and reinforcing both initiatives: ‘Safe Grandstands’ and restrictions on access to stadiums for parents with debts. For this, the Ministry of National Security and the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Años have signed an agreement that “marks a qualitative leap” in field controls throughout the country. The key is in the exchange of information, which will allow thousands of new names to be included in the ‘Safe Tribune’ red list. To be more exact, we talk about 13,000 people, “delinquent obligors” registered in Buenos Aires and 13 other provinces spread across the country, such as Chaco, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Tierra de Fuego, Santa Cruz or Tucumán. From now on all of them will have a difficult time when they want to watch games in the stadiums, at least as long as they do not catch up with the food pensions they owe. Click on the image to go to the tweet. “Consequences”. Alejandra Monteoliva has not been the only one to insist on the advantages of the system. Something similar has been done, too. via Xthe head of Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Jorge Macri: “In the city a year ago we prohibited the entry of food debtors to stadiums and mass shows. Now, in joint work with the Government, we added our database to the Safe Tribune program to reinforce these controls throughout the country. Anyone who does not comply with an obligation as basic as feeding their children must have consequences.” Where it hurts the most. In his message, dated May 26, Macri left bouncing another fundamental idea: access controls with the debtor registry in hand will not only be done in the country’s stadiums; The idea is that they will also be applied during the World Cup. Milei’s team has sent a list to the US with more than 30,000 Argentine fans who have restricted access to the World Cup stadiums, which will start in a week in Mexico. And these include, confirms Monteolivathe 13,000 delinquent parents. It is not just another announcement or a declaration of intent. The new restrictions in Argentine stadiums have become official already in the Official Gazette and the Executive has also published a resolution (444/2026) announcing the sending to the US Embassy of information on people with restrictions to access sporting events. The measure is adopted based on the cooperation agreements signed between both Governments and its list would include the “alimony debtors”. Some sources they assure that the veto will extend to Canada and Mexico, the other hosts of the FIFA Cup. Is the problem so serious? In case the 13,000 registered in the system do not give a clue, in 2024 Unicef ​​provided another even more emphatic one: that year it published a report in which it warned that 56% of mothers living in Argentina do not receive child support when the father does not reside in the home, a percentage that rises to 68% if we include mothers who do not receive it regularly. Field access restrictions will only apply when there is a judicial or administrative resolution that demonstrates non-payment and the affected person appears in the official registry of defaulters. Images | Jimmy Baikovicius (Flickr) and Wikipedia In Xataka | The World Cup in the USA is making merit to be the most expensive in history: tickets are already reselling for 2.3 million dollars

Giving seven times more vitamin D during pregnancy improves children’s memory at 10 years old. The problem is in the fine print

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During pregnancy, the recommendations of supplementation They are an area where science advances with lead feet, since the most important thing is always to guarantee safety. One of these supplements that is heard the most is vitamin Dtraditionally known for its role in calcium absorption and bone health, but which has been in the spotlight for years for its possible impact on neurodevelopment. A new study of Danish origin has put its objective on this statement to be able to clarify what happens when a mother supplements with vitamin D during pregnancy. Through its publication in JAMAtells how, to achieve good results, almost 500 children were analyzed for several years until finally being able to see if they had cognitive improvement during their childhood. What were they based on? To understand this discovery we have to go back in time to a randomized clinical trial titled as COPSAC2010whose initial results were published in 2016. This trial sought to evaluate whether vitamin D prevented the risk of suffering from asthma or persistent wheezing in babies, and to verify this the researchers divided the mothers into two groups from the 24th week of gestation: One group would receive the standard recommended dose of vitamin D of 400 IU per day. The other group had a “megadose” of vitamin D of 2,800 IU daily. The discovery. Taking advantage of this valuable group of 498 children, the research team decided to get more out of it, since when these children reached 10 years of age they were subjected to rigorous cognitive tests to see if the fact of having given vitamin D to their mother during pregnancy had left its mark on their brain. In this way, two objectives were covered with a single investigation. Here the results revealed that children in the high supplementation group showed a modest but significant improvement in verbal and visual memory compared to the children of mothers who took the standard dose of vitamin D. Although something important to note is that it puts to rest any idea that this supplementation is a machine to “create geniuses”, because there were no differences in IQ and they only saw that the ability to retain information was improved. The small print. Given such a finding, it is tempting to think that all pregnant women should multiply their vitamin D intake to give their children an advantage over others. But here we must pay attention to different problems, such as that the original trial was designed to measure respiratory problems and not neurological development. This means that drawing conclusions from here reduces the statistical robustness of the discovery. But this is not the only problem, since we have seen that the effect is “modest” without seeming to give children a great advantage. And furthermore, the study is based on women who already had normal vitamin D levels before the study, so it is not clear how this dose would act in populations that truly have some type of chronic deficiency of the vitamin. Will there be changes? At the moment, these studies do not justify the need to recommend that all pregnant women supplement their diet with vitamin D, as is the case with other supplements such as folic acid. The real value of this research is not to give us an immediate new prescription, but to open the door to future clinical trials specifically designed to unravel how what happens in the womb continues to shape our brains a decade later. Images | amylla battani In Xataka | We have been sending pregnant women to bed for decades as a precaution. Science has just proven that it is a big mistake

The world wants to verify the age of children so that they do not access social networks. Children’s solution: paint a mustache

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The United Kingdom presume to have one of the strictest legislations in the world when it comes to protecting minors from social networks. The curious thing is that young people are managing to demonstrate that age verification technology has a unique Achilles heel: an eyebrow pencil. Look, I have a mustache. The British country has been forcing platforms to implement age verification measures in accordance with its Online Safety Act for months. However, a recent study from the NGO Internet Matters reveals that the limits imposed by these platforms are surprisingly easy to overcome. In fact, one of the methods is especially striking, because some children simply use an eyebrow pencil to paint a mustache and thus look older than they really are. Children 1 – Machines 0. This agency surveyed 1,000 children and parents in the United Kingdom and although it showed positive effects after activating these measures, it also made it clear that many children saw these systems as an easy obstacle to overcome rather than as a way to keep them safe. 46% of minors believe that the measures are easy to overcome. Only 17% believe that they are very difficult to avoid, while 19% say they do not know. Source: Internet Matters. Cheating machines is trivial. 46% of the children surveyed indicated that These age verification systems are easy to overcomeand only 17% found them difficult to avoid. There are several methods to overcome these systems, but most are simple. For example, using video game characters like ‘Death Stranding’ to show them in front of cameras trying to verify their age. Also show IDs of other people when asked, or simply use false birth dates. (At least) One in three skips the controls. But not everyone uses these methods: although the aforementioned 46% say that it is easy to overcome these systems and another 17% say that they are neither easy nor difficult, “only” 32% admit to having used some technique to overcome them. Of course, it is one thing that only 32% admit it and quite another that these figures are representative taking into account that they are confessing that they are doing something that they should not do. Methods vary, but many use fake birth dates or log in with their parents’ or siblings’ accounts. Complicit parents. The effectiveness of the Online Safety Act depends largely on the family environment, with data suggesting that at least a quarter of parents are uncooperative. The study indicates that 26% of parents have allowed their children to ignore or overcome these age verification systems, and in fact 17% admit have actively helped their children to evade these controls while 9% simply turn a blind eye. It’s not that big of a deal. Many parents justify this “help” by indicating that they understand the risks of their children accessing these platforms, but prefer to supervise the use of services such as TikTok or video games themselves. The idea: allow your children to bypass restrictions to play with friends or stream, but theoretically under your supervision. The failure of putting doors to the field. It’s not just that age verification systems are easy to overcome: The thing is that they do not eliminate risks completely either. In the Internet Matters study, almost half of the minors surveyed (49%) indicated that they had recently encountered toxic material on the Internet. This makes it clear that even children who do not try to bypass these controls still encounter inappropriate content. There are those who advocate going further and push for the end of online anonymity. Image | Jeremiah Lawrence In Xataka | The EU has just ready its app to verify age on the internet. And Ursula von der Leyen warns: “There are no more excuses”

We knew that mobile phones had an impact on children’s mental health. A study has defined the border: 16 years

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Today, we live in a time of great debate around Instagram, TikTok or X, wondering if they really negatively affect our minors, with several governments promoting the possibility of banning them, including Spanish. Now, a new study longitudinal has shed light on the true impact that using social networks can have on mental health, pointing to a much more complex scenario than we think. The study. It has been a team from the Miguel Hernández University that has decided to put the focus precisely on social networks at a time when research paints a very worrying picture. But in this case wanted to put the focus in the nuances that should really matter to us: age, gender and mental health status prior to entering the world of social networks. And its conclusions change the classical conception. It’s not how much, but how. Until recently, the most classic concept to measure danger was “screen time.” In this way, different reviews suggested that spending more hours in front of the cell phone was equivalent to having a worse well-being. But the UMH research goes a step further and focuses on how networks interfere with daily life, sleep or personal relationships. Here the most striking finding that the research team saw was that the impact of this problematic use on depressive symptoms has a very clear boundary: 16 years. But it fades. Although researchers have observed that increased depressive symptoms It is much more acute in those under 16 years of age, it has also been seen that around this age the effect diminishes. The reason that marks 16 years as a true frontier is precisely the greater capacity for emotional and cognitive self-regulation that adolescents have as they mature little by little. In this way, young people from the age of 16 become less vulnerable to the negative impacts of the digital environment, something pointed out by other external studies that already warned that early pre-adolescence is the true critical period of exposure to social networks as they are more sensitive. A gender gap. Another worrying point raised by science is how digital popularity affects depending on whether the teenager is a boy or a girl. And right now we live in the era of followers where anything is done to see how our accounts have more and more followers. And while it may seem like having more followers is a positive reinforcement for any teen, the data says otherwise. The researchers point out here that having a greater number of followers is associated with a greater number of depressive symptoms, and especially in girls. The reasons lie in the pressure to maintain a perfect image, the fear of being analyzed down to the last detail and, logically, the cybervictimization. A set of factors that act as a toxic cocktail towards mental health. In the boys. Here, having many followers has a neutral or even somewhat protective effect, operating as a status enhancer within a group of friends, for example. That is, the complete opposite of girls, marking a gender gap that has also been investigated by other third-party studies that already warned that the mental health of minors is much more susceptible to the dynamics of online validation. Previous vulnerability. Do social networks depress you or were teenagers already depressed? This is the question we can ask ourselves when addressing this complex issue, and science indicates that adolescents who already suffered from a previous vulnerability before using the networks are the most susceptible. In this way, if a young person already presents depressive symptoms, their evolution will be significantly worse if they develop problematic use of networks. In these cases, the screen becomes a true refuge that ends up worsening the original picture when exposed to a large number of people or by consuming negative content. What should we do? The great conclusion that can be drawn here is that We must protect preteens as they are the most vulnerable, and also give priority attention to girls because they suffer much greater aesthetic and validation pressure. This is where governments come in with the regulations that are already being put on the table to prevent these most vulnerable young people from being exposed to something that can be so harmful. Images | Johnny Cohen In Xataka | We say we are “depressed” beyond our means: where does the illness end and where does the illness begin?

Imoo turned the children’s smartwatch into its own genre. Now all the parents who bought it are stuck

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According to CounterPoint Research estimate for the global smartwatch market in 2025… Apple grew 12%. Samsung fell 6%. Imoo grew by 17%. Action replay: A Chinese brand that exclusively sells children’s watches is growing more than Appleand definitely more than Samsung, which is going down. Imoo, what The year has already started growing in quotaalready has 7% of the global smartwatch market. And it doesn’t really compete against the Apple Watch Ultra or the current Galaxy Watch: compete against the anguish of not knowing where your child is when he leaves school. Or rather: against the fear of not knowing if one day something happens. Counterpoint Research projects that the global smartwatch market will grow 7% in 2025 after first falling in 2024. That rebound is partly explained by Apple launching the cheap SE 3 and recovering after seven consecutive quarters of declines. But there is another factor: China went from 25% global share in 2024 to 31% in 2025. And within that jump, Imoo has a specific role that perhaps we are not looking at closely enough. Huawei is reinforcing its focus on health and sports, Apple maintains its inertia, Xiaomi focuses on the watch as part of a domestic ecosystem… and Imoo has turned parental fear into a product category. Their watches have GPS, calls, SOS button or alerts when the child leaves an area geofenced by his parents. As a watch it is not very smart and perhaps fits better in the category of surveillance and emergency aid device. Imoo hasn’t invented parental fear, but it has built a great machine to monetize it. Besides, It is a device that creates functional dependency: Once a parent puts it on their child’s wrist, they get used to the peace of mind it provides. So it is difficult not to renew it when the child stamps it or when it becomes obsolete. This success of Imoo goes beyond technology: when you grow 17% a year selling this type of watches, you do not measure adoption, but rather the number of parents who have decided that the anxiety that would cause them not knowing where their child is (understandable, of course) is worse than the inconvenience of constantly tracking them. Once you cross that threshold, there is no turning back. Previous generations had opaque spacesmoments of disappearance for a few hours before returning to dinner. These spaces are closed with this type of products, colorful and gamified, with a branding questionable but an unquestionable commercial success. Parents do not feel that they “control”, but rather that they protect. And kids don’t feel tracked, at least until they get acne and the bomb goes off, until then they just feel like they have a cool watch. And there is an advantage for parents: if suddenly almost all of your child’s classmates have one, the fact that your child does not have one becomes an anomaly. Imoo’s 7% share (and counting) measures how many children are growing up knowing that their parents can track them at any time. It measures a generation that normalizes permanent connectivity as a default state from the age of six. Counterpoint speaks of the smart watch market with “China-driven growth” and “different strategies to sustain the engagement of the consumer”, but it does not mention that One of those strategies is to redefine a part of childhood. The next son will also wear the watch. And the next one too. Imoo doesn’t need to grow faster than Apple to win. It just requires that each generation of parents find it more unthinkable than the previous one to leave a child unaccounted for. In Xataka | After almost a decade with the Apple Watch, I have switched to a Garmin. And I understood what I was missing Featured image | Xataka

This year the Three Wise Men bring something very special to children: children’s cosmetics

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There’s barely a month left until Christmas and the first catalogs are already in hands of thousands of families. But this year, among dolls, constructions and car tracks, something unexpected has appeared: construction kits. skin care aimed at girls. unicorn masks, jade rollers “to play spa” and even “children’s” serums. On TikTok, creators like Mommy of three and Alottameg They accumulate thousands of views criticizing the fact that these products are promoted as toys. The alarm has gone off: what is facial care being part of the letter to the Three Wise Men? A global phenomenon that reaches children’s catalogs. What the Christmas brochures show is not an anecdote: it is part of an international trend. According to The New York Timesactress Shay Mitchell launched Rini, a brand of masks aimed at girls as young as 4 years old, whose promotional images caused massive rejection on networks and among dermatologists. And the data increases the tension. A Nielsen IQ study has pointed out that American households are spending more than $2.5 billion annually on beauty products for girls between 7 and 12 years old. In Spain, in addition to the boom on TikTok, stores already include children’s spa kits in their toy sections. More and more girls are asking for jade rollers, creams and creams on their Christmas lists. glowmasks peel off or antioxidant serums. dand the Sephora kids to the toy aisle. According to Yale Medicinemany children and preteens are “obsessed” with creating skin routines copied from TikTok and Instagram: scrubs, serums, masks, night creams… Even without having acne or any dermatological problem. Dermatologist Kathleen Suozzi explains that: “Our study shows that 20% of tweens and teens spend more than $50 a month on products they don’t need, sometimes layering five or more products.” The phenomenon has a name in digital culture: Sephora kids. The academic study of Rachel Wetstone and Jane Grant-Kels details that Girls between 8 and 12 years old show routines of between 6 and 12 products on social networks, many of them designed for adult skin. In these videos, exfoliating acids, retinoids, concentrated vitamin C and steps that imitate a 10-step adult routine are repeated. Beyond the skin risks, the authors warn of the ethical effects: premature aesthetic pressure, misinformation and economic exploitation of an extremely impressionable public. When skin care becomes a feminine role. In parallel, children’s advertising has been pushing girls towards the field of aesthetics for years. The Women’s Institute analyzed toy advertising in the Christmas campaign and found that: In 38.5% of advertisements aimed at girls, archetypes linked to beauty or the role of caregiver/mother/wife appear. The color pink dominates in almost a quarter of toys for girls, while boys appear linked to vehicles, action, professions such as pilot, police or military. 11% of advertisements sexualize girls, while no examples of sexualization of boys were detected. In that context, that sets of skin care As a toy “for girls” it is not an anomaly, but one more piece of a puzzle: that of a female childhood associated with aesthetics, beauty and body care from a very young age. As we already explained in Xatakathe Alpha generation (born after 2010) is growing up under an “early ritual” of aesthetic care, driven by algorithms that serve them videos of perfect skin, filters and routines, often before they have reached puberty. Dermatological risks. There is broad medical consensus here. According to KidsHealthmost children and teens only need three things: a mild soap, a fragrance-free moisturizer, and sunscreen. For their part, acne-prone adolescents can use versions oil-free of moisturizer and photoprotector, but always with medical advice. In addition, they emphasize that anti-aging products (anti-wrinkle, blemishes, firmness…) are not necessary and can cause just the opposite: acne, irritation, burns or eczema. However, between different sources The ingredients that most worry about trends in preteens are: Retinoids and retinol, which can cause severe irritation, peeling, and photosensitivity. AHA/BHA acids such as glycolic or salicylic acids, associated with redness and chemical burns in children’s skin. Fragrances, one of the main triggers of allergic dermatitis in children Drying alcohols, which damage the skin barrier Chemical sunscreens, more irritating than mineral ones Comedogenic oils such as coconut, cocoa or lanolin, which clog pores and can aggravate cosmetic acne. There is a psychological impact. From Yale Medicine describe how some children They begin to feel a real compulsion to maintain long routines, to the point of affecting sleep, social time, or even school performance. The Wetstone and Grant-Kels clinical study points to growing anxietyconstant comparisons, and teenagers who feel “insufficient” if they don’t replicate the routines they see on TikTok. For their part, the case of girls between 10 and 12 years old who speak openly of fear to “get old”, a meaningless concept at his age. And some come to think that “without products they are not worth enough”, a symptom of what several experts They are already beginning to identify it as infantile cosmeticorexia. It is not the first controversial toy. But the first with real assets. For example, children’s makeup cases have existed for decades: barely pigmented shadows, almost transparent lipsticks, peelable nail polishes. They were toys. However, the current difference is twofold: on the one hand, the products imitate real cosmetics, with active ingredients (although in low concentration) and claims typical for adults: illuminates, blurs pores, anti-aging, repairs barrier. On the other hand, they are not sold only as a game, but as a routine, as a habit of care and self-care. That is, as something that is not used from time to time, but every day. As The Guardian detailsdermatologists already treat 10-year-old girls who use vitamin C, retinol and exfoliants “because they saw it on TikTok.” This is not a mask with friends: it is the idea that they should “take care of themselves” to avoid non-existent wrinkles. Is this really a toy? Christmas catalogs raise an uncomfortable question: at what point did a face mask become a normalized children’s gift? It is not … Read more

The two largest travel agencies in Spain fight to sell trips to Disney. This is the business of children’s dreams

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Ávoris has lost the exclusivity it maintained in Spain to market trips to the Disney parks. El Corte Inglés Travel obtained authorization in May to distribute these packages through its Smytravel platform, breaking a monopoly that allowed its great rival to consolidate its leadership in the ranking of Spanish travel agencies. Now both giants compete directly for the same pie: the 500 independent agencies integrated into Traveltool and the thousands of Spanish families who ask about the price of a trip to Disney every year. Why is it important. Disney is not just another product: it is the star product of family tourism in Spain (and increasingly even for adults without children). Its parks received 142 million visitors in 2024, almost doubling its closest competitor, and Disneyland Paris is the loose leader. This trip is sold almost exclusively through physical agencies, generates high margins and attracts families who are especially willing to spend a lot of money to make their children’s dreams come true. Whoever controls Disney controls a substantial part of the family travel business. The background. The exclusivity of Ávoris has never pleased its competitors: For years, agencies that wanted to sell Disney had to resort to the group’s tour operators: LePlan and Touring Club. That made Ávoris the inevitable intermediary of a business with guaranteed demand. This privileged situation used to generate recurring complaints in the sector for what they considered unjustified favorable treatment. Yes, but. Ávoris has not sat idly by. It has launched improvements to the LePlan and Touring Club platforms with a new centralized page that offers training, inspirational content and tools to design personalized Disney experiences. The answer comes weeks after Tourmundial (the brand of El Corte Inglés) announce combined packages to Disneyland Paris with accommodation, transportation, tickets and complementary services. Between the lines. This trade war points to something deeper in Spanish society: the touristification of childhood. Going to Disney has become an almost obligatory milestone, a natural extension of the first communion as a rite of passage and as an experience that “must be lived.” Not taking your children to see Mickey and company can generate a feeling of social exclusion, as if the experience were an essential requirement for a complete childhood. So agencies don’t just sell trips, they sell the feeling of tranquility from meeting social expectations and the fulfillment of the child. In Xataka | The incredible story of the couple who lived at Disneyland for 15 years without the visitors realizing it Featured image | Capricorn song

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