Dr. Pamela Wisniewski and Dr. Elizabeth A. Sweigart have published a new peer-reviewed book chapter, “Decentralized Governance for Youth Online Safety: Open Innovation, Digital Democracy, and Federated Social Media.”
The chapter asks a broader question about youth online safety: What if it is not only a platform problem, but also a governance problem? The authors examine how centralized platforms can concentrate decision-making power and limit transparency, accountability, and meaningful youth participation.
As an alternative, they explore federated and decentralized approaches built around shared safety infrastructure, multistakeholder governance, participatory oversight, interoperability, and continuous evaluation. The goal is not decentralization for its own sake, but digital infrastructure that better aligns youth protection with democratic values such as participation, transparency, accountability, and public trust.
The chapter appears in Digital Democracy and E-government – Research, Trends and Future Perspectives and was published by IntechOpen.
Read the chapter: Decentralized Governance for Youth Online Safety