One of the reasons we promote digital media literacy as a response is that it is so difficult to determine what the appropriate limits of free expression are, and, as we noted in our remarks, most people feel that the number of cases in which expression should be regulated by law should be few.
What our research has found is that the more young people, and, we believe, people in general, are empowered to shape the social norms of their own spaces and to speak out both to express themselves but also in response to expression they feel is inappropriate for their spaces, the less we need to rely on law or regulation.
That being said, we also know that the youth in our study appreciate having that as a recourse. We know, for instance, that in cases of cyber-bullying, a vanishingly small number are likely to turn to law enforcement or, indeed, any kind of authority in the first incident, but with each attempt to resolve it failing, they're more and more likely to turn to authorities such as teachers and, with enough failed attempts, significantly likely to turn to police.
It is important to have that sanction available. It is important to the youth in our study that the law be available as a tool, but we also know that, in general, they don't want to turn to it unless there is no other option. We also know that they want to have more opportunities to speak out, both in their own right and in response to speech they consider inappropriate in their spaces.