With the continuous development of the Internet, more and more online digital platforms have been developed by different operators for people to use, and these digital platforms bear most of the needs of modern people, such as using video websites to pursue dramas online, online game platforms for people to entertain, social media platforms for people to communicate and socialize, and so on. Because the digital platform has become an indispensable part of modern life, it also brings a series of problems. More and more bad content such as bullying, harassment, violent content, hatred, pornography, etc. appears on the Internet and those digital platforms. These contents not only make people feel uncomfortable but also easily bring bad guidance to contemporary young people, thus becoming problems for juveniles or criminals. Therefore, it is urgent to strictly monitor and manage digital platforms, and how to prevent the spread of bad content has become an important issue worth pondering.
The “management” of digital platforms should include multiple levels, including the administrative “administration” of the government, the internal “management” of digital platform operators, and the “self-regulating” of the industry（Shivakumar, 2016). Therefore, government departments and operators of digital platforms should take the main responsibility for preventing the spread of bad content on the network. Digital platform management can be roughly divided into two aspects: one is network operation management, and the other is online behavior management （Cenamor et al.，2019）. Network operation management includes the formulation of technical standards, etc. Since the birth of the Internet, this has been a problem mainly solved by scientists and engineers. However, online behavior involves the public interest and everyone who does online behavior, and the government must assume corresponding responsibilities, including legislative responsibility and administrative supervision responsibility.
I think it’s an important step to formulate strict regulations on the use of digital platforms to stop the spread of bad content on the Internet. At the same time, however, because the Internet has the characteristics of cross-border, instant communication, being available to everyone, unlimited expansion, etc., this leads to many difficulties in formulating relevant laws and regulations. Because the tendency of computer technology convergence has changed the way of information production, storage, dissemination, and use, and blurred the boundaries of information providers, users, and disseminators, this has challenged how to protect the rights and interests of all parties and determine the responsibilities of all parties, because any online communication behavior may be linked to many parties. If illegal content appears on the Internet, what kind of responsibilities should content publishers, content service providers, and network access service providers take, and how to figure out their responsibilities are the contents that the government needs to make clear. But even though it is difficult to legislate and divide the responsibilities of digital platforms, the government must make greater efforts to clarify legislation. Although many people in the United States and the European Union advocate freedom of speech, they all agree that strict laws should be enacted to protect minors from harmful content on the Internet. The American Children’s Online Protection Act (2021) stipulates that commercial organizations should bear criminal and civil responsibilities if they place “harmful content” on websites instead of browsing in specific areas.
In addition to the national government’s clear legal provisions on the content published by digital platforms, it is also very important for digital platform operators to strengthen the supervision of the platforms. Digital platform operators should work out a set of network security level protection systems according to the capture and extraction of different keywords, take technical measures to record and track the state of network operation, monitor and record network security incidents, and keep network logs according to regulations; During daily monitoring, once sensitive words are captured, they will be reviewed immediately, and once they are judged to be bad content, they will be deleted immediately, and other content published by the publisher of the content will be strictly reviewed. If no other bad content is found, the publisher will be warned. However, once other bad content is found, it should be punished according to Internet regulations. Of course, this is just my suggestion for digital platform operators. In the actual operation process, network operators should have stricter algorithms and big data capture technologies, so that they can supervise the content more strictly.
Finally, the “self-discipline” of the entire network platform is also an important step to prevent the spread of bad content. It is very difficult to eliminate pornography, violence, and other bad content on digital platforms by relying on the law and network supervision. Self-discipline and self-restraint of every digital platform user are the roots of the complete disappearance of bad content on the Internet. When every network user should realize that a harmonious and civilized network environment is not only altruistic but also selfish, a truly civilized network platform will emerge as the times require. Of course, it is difficult to rely solely on the self-discipline of moral restraint. Therefore, in October 2005, after soliciting opinions from all walks of life, the Korean government issued the relevant regulations for the real-name registration system. According to the regulations, when netizens leave messages, set up and visit blogs on the Internet, they must register their real names and ID numbers first, and they can only use them after passing the certification (Song et al., 2016). At the request of the real-name registration system, people often think twice about the content they publish, because the content is no longer hidden under an anonymous identity but is published by a real person. This “heteronomy” brought about by the real-name registration system’s request can also help digital platforms to stop bad content.
In conclusion, I think that every digital platform user, network operator and national government has the responsibility to prevent bullying, harassment, violent content, hatred, pornography, and other bad content from appearing on the Internet. Digital platform users can build a civilized network environment through self-discipline and heteronomy. Network operators can screen out bad content by strengthening supervision, to delete the content in the background. While the government needs to improve the laws and regulations on the use of online platforms to punish those users who publish bad content, to achieve the purpose of preventing the publication of bad content. Finally, I want to say that a civilized and harmonious network environment is something that every one of us needs to strive for. I believe that shortly, no one will be harmed by the bad content of the network.
Reference List：
Cenamor, J., Parida, V., & Wincent, J. (2019). How entrepreneurial SMEs compete through digital platforms: The roles of digital platform capability, network capability and ambidexterity. Journal of Business Research, 100, 196–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.035
Shivakumar, S. K. (2016). Enterprise content and search management for building digital platforms. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119206842
Song, Y., Kim, H., & Huh, J. H. (2016). On the Guessability of Resident Registration Numbers in South Korea. Information Security and Privacy, 128–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40253-6_8
UPDATE: S.1423 – A bill to amend the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 to give Americans the option to delete personal information collected by internet operators as a result of the person’s internet activity before age 13. (2021). Congressional Documents and Publications.