Youth Engagement in Digital Futures
As the world’s most interconnected generation, young people are at the forefront of digital advancement. Today, 75 per cent of people aged between 15 and 24 are users of the internet, making them a generation of digital natives. The significance of young people’s power, potential and influence on technologies have made young people key stakeholders of digital development.
However, young people have constantly voiced out their concern about their digital futures and the lack of inclusion of youth in its process. In February 2023, a global poll in nine countries reaching nearly 80,000 people more than 80 per cent of whom are under the age of 34. Among the respondents, 41 per cent said they are mostly worried about how technology will change the world over the next decade.
Following the UN Secretary-General’s policy brief on meaningful youth engagement, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth is calling for meaningful engagement of young people in all policymaking processes, including in the process of technology development and policies. With the Our Common Agenda recommendation on the creation of Global Digital Compact, decision-makers have an opportunity to set the standard of key principles in developing and implementing rights-respecting technologies. Young people are key partners that must be engaged in shaping and implementing this important recommendation.
Together with UNICEF, the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth calls for strengthen commitment and united efforts to champion youth engagement in building a secure, inclusive and open digital society, and with other partners including UNESCO and i4Policy advocates for the importance of multi-stakeholder approaches that includes youth as key partners to help shape the development of Artificial Intelligence.
Check out OSGEY’s recommendation for the Global Digital Compact here and join our call for a better and safer future designed together with and for youth.
Several youth advocates and activists working on tech and innovation met with the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology Amandeep Singh Gill on the sidelines of the 2023 ECOSOC Youth Forum to discuss their work and the Global Digital Compact.
Online Safety and Protection for Young People
As a generation that have relied on technology to advocate for their rights and concerns, young people have regularly voiced the need to protect human rights online as well as the importance of online safety and protection for youth as some of their key priorities. In the Global Report on Protecting Young People in Civic Space 78 per cent of survey respondents reported having experienced some form of digital threats, and 18 per cent reported they experienced threats constantly.
In 2021, OSGEY collaborated with Twitter to launch the Youth Activist Checklist: Guidance on Digital Safety and Online Protection of Young People. Through the Guide young people are invited to know about their rights, check their digital footprint and learn more about reporting online violations on the platform.
In 2022, OSGEY joined forces with Office of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence Against Children (SRSG VAC), ITU and multi-stakeholder partners from civil society, private sector, and academic networks to launch the Protection through Online Participation (POP) initiative that focuses on children’s and young people’s rights online by combining both participation and protection in one multi-stakeholder research project.