ORCID
0009-0001-9904-0111
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Daniel Stephens
Keywords
Attentional safeguards model; ASM; attention economy; algorithmic amplification; platform governance; digital harm; free speech and technology; attention sovereignty; infrastructure regulation; algorithmic repetition; user autonomy; Delante Clark
Abstract
Digital platforms increasingly govern contemporary social, civic, and psychological life through systems optimized for attention capture, amplification, and monetization. While lawful expression remains protected under the First Amendment, the infrastructural mechanisms that determine how speech circulates have produced a range of attention‑based harms, including cyberbullying, engagement farming, compulsive doom scrolling, emotional dysregulation, and civic polarization. This research paper introduces the Attentional Safeguards Model (ASM), coined and formalized by Delante Clark, as a novel governance framework that mitigates such harms by regulating systems of amplification rather than restricting expression itself. Building on attention economy theory, technological mediation, constitutional free‑speech doctrine, and prior scholarship on attention sovereignty articulated in Distracted Generation(Clark, 2026), the model distinguishes expression from exposure and identifies amplification as a legitimate site of intervention. ASM advances a universal, viewpoint‑neutral approach to digital governance that preserves expressive freedom while safeguarding cognitive autonomy, social well‑being, and democratic capacity.
Date Added
2026
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
College
College of Community Innovation and Education
STARS Citation
Clark, Delante, "The Attention Safeguard Models: Governing Digital Harm Without Restricting Lawful Speech" (2026). Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works. 5.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/gradscholar/5
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