RHET 103 Persuasive Speech Flashcards
Introduction
I still have
And it made me think
Now with all
In order to
First,
Then,
Last
So,
I still have old Instagram and Musical.ly screenshots saved on my iCloud
Not on purpose… so far back in my camera roll… feels like a crime to delete them.
And it made me think… first generations of kids to navigate social media sites as they came out
Now with all of our experience, we have a responsibility to help out the younger generation to make sure that they are safer than we were
In order to do that, I believe that social media should be more heavily regulated for children and more emphasis should be placed on online safety education
First, I’ll highlight the main points that come with the regulation debate,
Then, we’ll talk about an example of how social media use has harmed kids
Last, I’ll tell you guys about what has been done so far and what we can continue to do
So, what’s the issue?
Outlining the problem
Main issue
13-year-old tiktok
From British
There have also
A. Outlining the issue currently (Problem)
The main issue is that social media has rapidly evolved in a very short period of time without any built in safety measures for children
For example, the only thing that makes a 13-year-old’s TikTok… 60-year-old’s is the curated content
… access to all of the same information, accounts, and most dangerously, the same chat system
From British science journal The Lancet, even the Chief Science Officer at the American Psychological Association (APA), Mitch Prinstein,… the introduction of social media to young people is: “like a car that doesn’t have seatbelts.” (Jaffe, 2023)
There are also problems that have been linked directly with the content kids and teens interact with on social media.
Cause
Current
Most common
…Visual #1…bright… successful
In 2018, the FDA
Deleting
But, couldn’t stop
…Visual #2… most common words from
(Cause)(This is an issue because)
Current regulations are not enough…
The most common example, that you might have seen with friends, is the early marketing campaign that JUUL Labs ran for their JUUL vape around the mid 2010s (Turner, 2020)
Visual #1: Vaporized campaign that ran mostly on social media platforms that were predominantly Gen Z at the time
Bright colors, young models
Campaign was very successful… spike in vaping
In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, reached a regulatory agreement with JUUL Labs, to try and discourage marketing vape products to underage audiences
Due to the surge of young people starting to vape
Deleting Instagram and FaceBook… deleting old tweets that seemed to market towards a young audience
However, the FDA could not stop other influencers or social media users… identifying their posts with hashtags… directly/indirectly market (Valdez & Unger, 2021)
Visual #2: Most common words from the #JUUL vs the actual Twitter account (Valdez & Unger, 2021)
A 2021 study from Infodemiology shows how different conversations were.. Official account… hashtag content
But the social media is such a big place, and not everyone is using their screen time to engage with #JUUL.
Opposition
On the other hand
Valid
Julie Inman Grant
On the other hand, some people argue that tightening restrictions will only push children towards more dangerous and unregulated sites
While this concern is valid… highlights the vastness of social media… importance of digital literacy… recognizing the need for safeguards rather than bans
Julie Inman Grant, the head of Australia’s eSafety Commission, the first online safety regulator of its kind, shares in this idea by comparing it to ocean safety
Where, kids are taught to swim with lifeguards and flags in the ocean, social media needs safeguards to guide children and make sure they are engaging with the environment safely (Allyn, 2024)
Thankfully, strides have been made in making social media a safer space for kids
Solutions
2023, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut
In May of 2023, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut introduced a bill called the Kids Online Safety Act (Blumenthal, 2023)
The main points of this bill are to
require social media sites to build in safeguards for kids, for example restricting access to their personal data
And giving parents and guardians tools to supervise their kids social media usage
In conclusion, there has to be a larger call for better online safety practices
In conclusion
Social media
And
As it stands
Long way to go
By staying informed
For better or worse
Restate Your Thesis
Social media should be more heavily regulated for kids
And there should be a stronger push for online safety education and digital literacy
Summarize Main Points
As it stands today, there are no safeguards for kids which puts them at risk of harmful content
And although we have started, there is still a long way to go in making social media a safer place for kids
End with a Call to Action (especially for policy or value speeches)
By staying informed, we can help keep our younger friends and family safe online
Clincher
For better or for worse, we are the generation who knows and understands social media the best out of everyone in the world, which makes it our responsibility to teach the younger generations how to be safe online and protect them from dangers that only we truly understand
