Arguments for my position: The internet has little to no regulations in place that provide protection for underage and adolescent individuals.

Arguments #1: Cyber-bullying/Online harassment is an example of the lack of internet regulations


“Pew Research Center survey in 2017, found that 41% of Americans had been personally subjected to online harassment… in a 2007 research study, they found that 32% of all teenagers who used the internet had experienced online victimization” (P.1, Choi, Kyung-Shick, et al,  ).


“Ngo and Paternoster (2011) study found that online harassment by a non-stranger was associated with spending more hours using instant messaging and participation in virtual offending (e.g., make or give another person a “pirated” copy of computer software or media (music, television show, or movie); access another person's account or files without his or her knowledge or permission to look at, add, delete, change, or print information or files; and look at pornographic or obscene material)’ (P.1-2, Choi, Kyung-Shick, et al, ).

 

Arguments #2: Internet ads use the internet to promote items to underage children

“Monitoring potential or actual youth exposure is increasingly challenging as the web evolves. Through social networking sites, an alcohol brand can upload its own content and user can upload their own content to the brands profile. Users can then interact with both brand- and user generated content, for instance, alcohol branded videos they like on their Facebook page…” (P.93 Jernigan & Rushman ).


“Around the world, governments are trying to figure out how to regulate internet marketing… Russia recently banned all alcohol marketing… the Australian Medical Association has called for a ban… describing internet marketing of alcohol as ‘more powerful and less controllable’ than traditional advertising …” (P.94 Jernigan & Rushman,).


“77 percent of teens are on Facebook… many of those teens may be on Facebook with a false age. 7.5 million of the 20 million teens who accessed Facebook were 13. 5 million were under the age of 10” (P.94 Jernigan & Rushman,).

 

Sources

Choi, Kyung-Shick, et al. “Impacts of online risky behaviors and Cybersecurity Management on cyberbullying and traditional bullying victimization among Korean youth: Application of Cyber-Routine Activities Theory with Latent Class Analysis.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 100, Nov. 2019, pp. 1–10. EBSCOhost Accessed 21 Sept. 2019

Jernigan, David H., and Anne E. Rushman. “Measuring youth exposure to alcohol marketing on social networking sites: challenges and prospects.” Journal of Public Health Policy, vol. 35, no. 1, 2014, pp. 91–104. JSTOR, www.jstor.org Accessed 21 Sept. 2019