Research Paper Outline

Thu Sep 14 2023

Kieran Klukas
Carrie Klukas
Writing

Thesis Statement: The government has no place dictating what children should or shouldn’t be able to access online.

Introduction

  1. The government is trying to create privacy regulations to limit children’s online usage
    1. The USA Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)
    2. The UK Online Safety Bill (OSB)
    3. The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (PKSMA)
  2. Research has shown that invasive authoritarian restrictions of online behavior lead to mistrust and circumvention.
    1. The current paradigm for keeping teens safe online is to increase parental control, and results in authoritarian and privacy-invasive parental controls that monitor and restrict teens activities. These solutions have proved to be ineffective and often detrimental to the trust relationship between children and parents. (Wisniewski et al., 2022, p. 326)
    2. Additionally, there is little evidence that these technologies actually keep teens safe online and, more importantly, may hinder teens from learning important online safety skills and effectively managing online risks on their own. (Wisniewski et al., 2022, p. 326)
    3. Teens may rebel against their parents rules in order to avoid technological constraints. (Wisniewski et al., 2022, p. 321)
  3. Survey results from teen privacy survey
    1. Student emotional response to privacy regulations
    2. student privacy literacy
    3. opinion on whether the government should be involved in restricting what content is viewable by teens
  4. Parent survey
    1. emotional response to privacy regulations
    2. opinion on whether the government should be involved in restricting what content is viewable by teens
  5. How these privacy regulations impact our rights
    1. first amendment right to information
    2. first amendment right to free speech
    3. Children pretending to be adults to fool an ID system could be charged with a federal criminal offense.
      1. Most kids lie about their age to gain access to systems. (The Atlantic, Aiken)
    4. Overreach to everyone because of censoring
  6. Conclusion
    1. When the government tries to regulate kids online lives, they regulate everyone’s lives.
    2. Systems will always have flaws that kids will persistently get passed, potentially branding them as federal criminals for being curious.
    3. Parents should have the right to restrict the right to what their children see and do online, and not the government.