사이버공간상 불법ㆍ유해정보로 인한 청소년피해 실태와 법제도적 대응방안

Juvenile Delinquency on Cyberspace and the Criminal Regulation

The Internet provides us with convenient access to a highly diverse area such as educational resources and collaborative studies. However, the problem lies in the fact that youth are exposed to the potential harm caused by using the Internet. I suggested several policies in protecting youth and children from illegal and harmful materials of the Internet in this paper. Firstly, I reviewed current situation of juvenile delinquency on the cyberspace through the quotation of statistic by Korean Institute of Criminology. Secondly, I explained about inappropriate Internet material and the legal controls. For example, a harmful exposure can occur through various channels, including Web pages, cyber communities, e-mails, chat rooms, instant messages, and peer-to-peer file-sharing connections. Thirdly, I examined several approaches to youth protection, basing on law, technology, and education. On the public policy side, government has to strengthen its policies through legal regulations to protect youth and children from illegal and harmful materials on the Internet. On the technical side, technological methods to restrict or block minors from inappropriate materials should be used. Technology-based tools such as filters can be highly effective in reducing the exposure of minors to inappropriate content. Finally, I emphasized the importance of cooperation between law enforcements at the local, state, national, and international levels to protect youth and children from inappropriate sexually explicit material on the Internet.