Monday, November 12, 2007
Topic Proposal for Policy Paper
My essay will be a policy paper. My focus will be mainly on what can be done in the future to continue better equipping social networking sites with safety precautions. The main claim I will be making is that there should be an age requirement to access social networking sites. Subclaims that will support this are statistics regarding the number of kidnappings/stalking situations that have affected those under the age of 18, proof that the majority of people 18 and over have a better understanding of the risks they are taking when they reveal private information over social networking sites, and proof that the ratio of people over 18 to the people under 18 is greater concerning proper use of these sites as well as the knowledge of how such sites work. Also, the literal analogy of the other restrictions on those under 18 will prove helpful. Such as voting, purchasing tobacco products, and enlisting in the army. I will definitely have to do more research. I will try to find more statistics regarding my situation and quotes and arguments from authoritative figures on my claim.
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4 comments:
I think this is a good topic to write on, with all of the publicity of internet stalkers. I think that you have covered the major aspects or your topic, and your policy paper will have good information for those using social networking.
Callie, I see both the importance of the issue and the plausibility of the claim that adults are more informed of the risks of syberspace. However, the social networking sites already have age restricting policies in place. The problem lies in enforcement of such policies: it is extremely difficult to check the real identity (and thus age) of users in syberspace. Perhaps you should focus your proposal on suggestions on how to better keep track of their users or maybe the younger audience needs to be educated about the potential risks of networking via the Internet.
How would you verify the age of those who access the sites? I think you may run into problems in enforcing it. Certain web site categories already have that restriction in place. As unpleasant as it is, you may want to research the "adult" web sites' legal battles with how they can claim to verify adulthood, but still have lax measures.
I think this is a good topic because we have so many problems with network stalking. It is an important issue to be discussed.
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