Topic: 2025 – Protecting and Empowering Youth in Digital Spaces
Country: Argentina
Delegate Name: Jaxton King
Country: Argentina
Committee: HRC
Topic: Protecting Youth In Digital Spaces
Delegate: Jaxton F. King
School: Williamston High School
In recent years AI has become an increased concern, especially where the topics of education and creation sit. Generative AI has grown significantly in popularity since 2019 by increasing in usage by about 74.6 percent overall, this presents a problem as AI is trained off of the entire internet using the LLM format to train certain bots. All LLM do not have the most impressive filters and as a result allows for inaccurate and harmful information to be passed along to youth. In addition to this the data collection used by large corporations such as OpenAI or Meta prove harmful to the youth as it targets and subjugates the user to feel a certain way or to buy a certain product. When the world allows for children to be targeted, where does it stop? It stops when we have youth suicide rates increasing as a result of companies trapping children in a cycle of emotional dependence and locks them in a negative and hypnotized mindset. In addition to this every generation has had its great creatives, but that seems to lack in the younger generations as we can see a disturbing trend of creativity and critical thinking skills declining to reliance on AI to do the work and the play for a person, this creates a juxtaposition of when does progress become to harmful?
The area of cybersecurity is often a complex and rigorous area to navigate preventing many families from informing their youth about the potential dangers and how to avoid them leading to situations such as exploitation and grooming, this is why Argentina has taken measures to stop this course of action at the beginning by attempting to pass legislation that will create age appropriate descriptions of a websites content that will cause children to avoid and parents to understand in simple terms what a website does in order to keep children safe. Reaching out to the youth is another important step, and trying to discern the individual problems they experience and help them in a way that won’t impact their life and will give them a safe environment to confide in. This is why the government has launched an anonymous online program that allows children to talk to government sanctioned advisors and counselors to get help whilst staying safe and staying protected all whilst circumventing the situation that prevents children from seeking help; having to tell their parents. In addition to this we have mandated that public schools which contain 72% of children in Argentina, teach responsible use workshops which are for adults and children and teach them how to use the internet as an aid and not be exploited.
Cybersecurity threats are not only limited to hackers, but also exist in such form as cyber bullies, and by allowing there to be more opportunities for predatory individuals to exploit and datamine children for personal and financial gain. Bullying is nothing new, but the incredible rise in cyberbullying has been proven to leave a long lasting psychological imprint upon the child, and it can even lead to issues such as self harm and depression. The internet is still a new frontier as it has only been around for about 28 years and as a result we are still learning how to make it safe. We should not be allowing children to pave a new frontier, it would be the same as feeding them to the wolves. It is a dangerous game that only impacts them further. This is why Argentina is currently proposing legislation to limit internet access and to limit it to 14 and older, and create a child safe and child only version run by government agencies. In addition to this Argentina is partnered with WeProtect Global Alliance to help protect children across international borders and provide methods for dealing with cybersecurity threats even from other countries.
The internet will never be completely free, and no internet will be completely safe. We have to live with the restrictions to protect those we care about. By allowing children to access the internet in an unprotected and unsecured environment we are unable to guarantee safety and freedom but when it comes to protecting children the tradeoff is completely fair.
