Children and Peer-to-Peer Risks in Social Networks: Regulating, Empowering or a Little Bit of Both?

Abstract

Social networking services (SNS) are an important part of many children and teenagers’ media use. As they communicate and share content by means of these services, minors may also engage in more risky behaviour, leading to reciprocal harassment which may blur the lines between victims and offenders to a greater extent than in the offline world. However, due to the specific nature of SNS, the use, and especially the implementation and enforcement of, traditional types of legislation are confronted with many obstacles. After identifying certain legal implications, this chapter examines the potential of alternative regulatory mechanisms and empowerment techniques (co-regulation, technical tools, media literacy, information provision mechanisms). The goal is to provide guidelines for the development of regulatory strategies which reduce peer-to-peer conduct and content risks in user-centric environments for children and young people while safeguarding fundamental rights and public interest goals.