The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
***
>> Good morning, everyone. Please take your seat. We're about to start. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to the internet governance forum 2022 youth summit. My name is ‑‑ it's not inappropriate for need too say the African has been a strong force in the global IGF youth.
Today, we are going to start our session. I will give you a little bit of background on it and today's session is the combination of work that the IGF youth have been doing over the last few months. So this is not brand new. And the session today is addressing three main issues, which youth have identified as important not just for youth in IGF, but as a whole to consider.
Firstly, the opportunities for social prosperity and digital transformation and that the internet and internet governance holds and how particularly the domains of education, economy and peace can be advanced through digital means.
Secondly, we also have to look at challenges. What are the challenges that are preventing people from fully benefiting from digital transformation opportunities. And how can we mitigate online harms, prevent cyber attacks and protect human rights online? And in the third issue working towards a best digital future. How can we do that? How can we achieve a better tomorrow? And what actions are inside and develop to ensure a safer, more security and sustainable digital environment between the current and next generations of experts and leaders and practitioners.
So I want to welcome all our online participants as well and I can't see you, but I know you are there and in fact, I think our online participants really represent the power of digital. So I think they deserve a special welcome.
Our session is going to be open with a recorded remarks from the Secretary General of the UN DESA for economic and social affairs and Mr. Li Junhua. He assumed the position of Secretary General in DESA. I think this is his first IGF. He's not in the room, but I think you might have an opportunity to hear him. He has chosen ‑‑ can we put the recorded remarks from Mr. Li online now, please? (no audio)
>> (?)
>> Mr. Li Junhua: Your generation makes up the largest group of Internet users. Digital is your lifestyle. Mobile and computer device are your access to information, education, social economic, political and more. The advanced digital technologies such as showing intelligence, the Internet of things, lock chain, robotics, computing and others are becoming more and more relevant to you. Dear participants, dear friends, digital transformation has changed many areas of our lives so quick that we are leaving behind in nations. We need to ensure that the technologies are safe to use. At the same time, we must ensure young people have access to them and importantly know how to use them. Let's go forward in investments in human capacity, digital infrastructure, reliable devices and digital literacy. It is an investment directly sharing your present and your future. There is a unique platform to address the challenge. In IGF, you can meet different stakeholders from different regions and ensure your voices are heard by those who can make a change now. It is also a platform for you to connect it to others and learn the exchange of good practices. Please use today wisely and actively as the internet generation, you are U.S. ambassador as you advocate in the progress, please don't forget those deprived of accessing or using digital technologies whether your peers, older persons, women and girls, turns can districts or people ‑‑ persons with disabilities or people living in remote areas. Remember your voice extends also for those who cannot know here they speak through you. I look forward to your deliberations. Thank you.
>>
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: I will han it over to members who will moderate short interventions from the floor, from participants remotely that have to be restricted to one minute each max. I'm going to keep time Eseason if they're moderating. And and our first topic that we're delving into is opportunities for social prospectity and provided by digital stancey ‑‑ prosperity provided. One is in the room. Barrack is here. I'm very happy to pass on to a colleague. Barrack, over to you.
>> Barrack Otieno: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening especially for those following us online. My name is Barrack Otieno as I have been ably introduced. It's a privilege and an honor to speak to this government of the youth. Although I am no longer youthful as part of my country Kenya where I come from. It is an important role of the development of the Internet and policy processes globally. I'll just make in the of interest time and the time that I have been given a few key points that first and foremost just to commend the youth for pushing and ensuring that they are on the table and not on the menu has as han in the past, I continue is a challenge to have a caucus such as this in the IGF forum. The youth is just panels and the voice of the youth is being heard in a very big way. In Africa internet governance forum marks a position for the youth and so is the other national and regional initiatives for the parts of the world. So congratulations to the youth. I hear common saying in Kenya that power is taken. It is not given but I think even when power is taken, it requires a lot of responsibility. So as youth, it is not just enough to desire to be on the table. We have to have the Pedigree that ensures that when we are on the table, we are able to sustain the seat on the table. Otherwise we'll be asked to move in the back. As I say this, I also want to point out that just looking at the Internet, some of the statistics, they're about 1.2 billion youth globally. The Internet chain is largely driven by young people or the youth. If you look at the big tech with Facebook Amazon, Google, something common is that most of the founders are the youth. I don't see any reason why the youth should not be at the table of driving important policy decisions when it comes to how the Internet is mainstreamed in our day to day lives. And I think that is the challenge that I want to post this this particular room that probably we need to move from the back room. We need to move from the developer rooms to the front table. We have seen cases in which big tech have been summoned by congress in the U.S. and in many other countries because of digitization. Things we are developing in the back room have a great impact on societies. We can see that if we take cumulatively the amount of money that the big techs are making, the equivalent to GDPs to some of the continents that we come from. So we can no longer and I estimate the shift that we are costing in the world. I think this is the challenge that I really want to pose to ask who is in the room that even as we develop the ups and the solutions that are driving mart places and that are driving economies, it is also imparitive that we start understanding policy and political frameworks that determine the acceptability of the different solutions that we are developing.
Another important thing is that it is one thing to develop. It is another thing to maintain. Speaking from the African region that I'm familiar with, one of the areas we have made attempts and I think this is not unique to Africa. It is also common globally is to build communities of practice. If you look at the different parts of the world, how the Internet is managed, through the regional Internet registry frameworks, you will find the organizations, for instance in Africa you have the center that takes care of the numbering in Africa, there are counter parts in Europe. Right NCC and AP to name a few. I think we need to learn something from the creation of this institution because that is what has kept the Internet going to where it is at the moment. And I think if we hadn't created these institutional frameworks, there are those in the different regions. It would be hard for us to have the kind of communities and the kind of caucuses that we have at the moment.
So the other thing I am stressing and emphasizing is institutionalization is key. They stand the test of time. If we look at journey of the internet governance forum, if it history been institutionalized, we wouldn't be sitting at this table today discussing the things we are discussing and there are many who consensualize the ideas. Some are youth just like the majority of the people in this room. They are no longer categorizing as youth. I think the challenge for you is to pick up on the institutional frameworks that were built and check whether they are relevant for the times that we are in. We're talking about Artificial Intelligence. We're talking about blockchains. Some of the frameworks can no longer stand the test of time as they did 20 years ago or as they did 30 years ago. So what kind of new frameworks do we need at this particular time? I think the answer really lies with the youth. And ‑‑
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Sorry to do this.
>> Barrack Otieno: Yes.Ad we do this we're concluding with bit tech and this will be my parting shot. I think definitely hard work and most of you are here because of the hard work you have been doing will obviously be key. Taking this power or taking this seat at the table and then being men of our words. The internet is about trust. If people can't trust the product or solution that you are deploying on the Internet, then likely your solution will not stand the test of time. Then we need to be good resource Managers as I have mentioned maintaining institutions, maintaining businesses requires more than youthful passion. It requires skillsets. You need to identify the right mentors who will drive us to the place that we can be. Of course, we need to learn from mistakes I have done in the past. I concluded that. Thank you, madame chair.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks, Barrack. I will add the institutionalization that barack mentioned, we need that on the Internet market place. We need it for digital literacy and political participation, for content creation, for journalism, for women's rights. We do need to institutionalize our work as a collective of individuals is very powerful and we need to integrate and government is one of those institutions that we also need to work with and infiltrate.
We've now going into the open discussion. I want to Alest everyone that the youth have created a page, an online page. So if you log into the Zoom session for this session, you'll find in the chat there's a link, a Google Doc where you can share your ideas, where you can give input whether you're here in the room or whether you're participating. So the discussion is happening here and it's also happening on that document.
So I'm now handing over to the open discussion on this topic to Ms. Emilia Zalewska. My country person Mauricia Abdol Tshilunda. Over to you.
>> I will allow Emilia to go first and then I will follow up.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Your mic ‑‑ if you can switch your mic a little bit. We heard you, but we could hear you better. So for your next input, go up a little bit on your mic.
>> Emilia Zalewska: Thank you very much for the floor. No. It's still not working well. So just switching mics. Is it better? This is better? Okay. Thank you very much for the floor and, ah, it was really a great pleasure to listen to Barrack. Mr. Barrack who thought so many kind things of your participation and it is also great to say that there's so much things done for youth participation in Africa. I think they're all an example for all your countries. If we can follow.
One thing that really caught my attention is what Mr. Barrack said about youth position and the table that is not only that has to be maintained but also sustained. And I think it is something very important we have to remember about. Even if you get the attention, draw the attention of other stakeholder groups, it is not given forever. So also this attention is ‑‑ it is not only ‑‑ it is not enough that we as young people get this attention as, you know, some kind of interesting thing of being young people talking to other young people, but we also need to be actually listened to like policy making processes, law making processes. We actually need to be considered as serious stakeholder groups because we might be differently affected by different regulations. And the other age groups. So also our opinion should not only be treated as something, you know, in the kind of interesting thing we can listen to and then forget about what we also need to be active part of shaping the process of digital transformation also in the regulatory type of matters. So thank you very much and now I'm giving the floor to Mauricia.
>> Mauricia Abdol Tish Linda: Thank you very much for your contributions in today's meeting. When we speak about youth inclusion, we go around the point of including the excluded all those in remote areas. I wanted to ‑‑
>> Mauricia, we can't hear you. Just check that you're unmuted.
>> Mauricia: Are you able to hear me now?
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Now we can hear you.
>> Mauricia Abdol Tish Linda: Direct question to you, Mr. Barrack. Often we speak about including youth at the table and that is fantastic. What we tend to not zone in on intentionally or perhaps unintentionally is the youth that are so at ground level, they're still in rural communities or remote communities of the countries. What is your view on the digital inclusion of youth in remote areas and how do you think we can reach them? Over to you.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Barrack, did get that there was a question for you?
>> Barrack Otieno: Thank you, Mauricia, for that question. I think with the internet, the issue of inclusion of the youth in marginalized areas, um, should no longer be a challenge. Let me put it that way. Currently, we have options for last mile access that will ensure that in the sub areas are actually connected. I'm sure most in the room here are already familiar about the community network movement that is largely championed by the internet society I believe for which Mauricia, you represent. Now we have models that can be able to guarantee inclusion of the youth in the sub areas. When I say guarantee, there is still some work that needs to be done at the policy level and also at technical level. Policy level, we need to really consider the mechanisms that exist that have been used as a BASIS for allocating and spectrum in our respective countries. If you check some of the mechanisms, they focus on areas that are profitable as opposed to areas that probably may not bring an investment to this commercial investors, but looking at the history of the internet, it's important for us to note that the internet was largely funded or developed using public interest resources. If we look at the U.S., a lot of public money was used from the national science foundation or the military to build what was the initial design of the Internet. And I don't see why the focus should then shift to commercial interest which then cuts out large masses of the population that are considered and are subbed. So I think the challenge to the room is that we need to interrogate the policy frameworks within our respective countries and see whether they look at spectrum and Internet resources from a purely commercial stand point or a social good, which can be used to make sure that everyone is included. And secondly, because I believe there are many technicians in this room, we need to move from the comfort of the cities and keyboards and really go to our rural areas and build infrastructure. Looking around this room, I can see very learned people and even on the online list who can actually go out there and make sure that infrastructure is built. Matter of fact, if you look at the history of Internet and you look at initiatives such as INET by the Internet Society, there are people who involved all the way from the comfort of their homes to ensure Internet infrastructure was built and deployed. As I speak, I'm a community network champion running a community network known as a her net in the western part of Kenya. Just ensuring we are leaving no one behind and the Internet is for everyone. So it's not a question of talking. We need to get out there and connect this who are unconnected. We need to get out there and train those who are untrained. Thank you, madame chair.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks, Barrack. That's the perfect way to close this section on looking at opportunities. We have to create our own opportunities. We have to connect ourselves and we have to collaborate. It is about policy and doing advocacy for policy that will enable these opportunities that digital transformation hold to be realized. If we don't take action individually and nothing will change. So thanks for that, Barrack.
We now move to the next section of today's summit, which is to look at the challenges. I think we are aware of the opportunities, but also we're aware of the challenges. We live the challenges.
We have two speakers and we have Vlada who is with us virtually. And next to me the IGA youth's very own Edinam Lily Botsyoe. Are you ready to make your intervention through Zoom?
>> Vlada: I hope you can see me.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: We can hear you clearly. So please go ahead.
>> Vlad mere raid notifyic: That's at least something with Africa and I am glad you started with the opportunities. Whenever we go into challenges, we tend to frighten people as if we're really only talking about risks. But sometimes we can actually get the attention particularly of policymakers if you frighten them a little bit. You will allow me to share and I hope you'll see just illustrations. I hope you'll know able to see. I want to link to what Barrack was talking about, which is the opportunities. One of the failures was flying cars. We have been thinking about flying cars for over 100 years. If you see the illustration, it was done in 1899 where people were asked to imagine how the year 2000 would look like. They imagined the flying cars. We failed there because we haven't seen flying cars yet. Now, this is moving. If you take a look at what's coming, France is announcing probably next year 2024 to have some flying cars. The olympics over there. Technology is there. There is a regulatory framework which is probably failing heavily, not necessarily ‑‑ policy framework. Let me be very clear. The difference is it's not about flying anymore when it comes to cars. The dubious location and the 5G communication and a lot of sensors and that flying car future. There is Artificial Intelligence that will help probably some driving and so on. There are so many elements which are digital. And there is something that is a big deal. Flying car which many of you will see very soon. And it takes a huge risk of life that goes down. The problem is if you move on to ‑‑ if you scale up or just come to today's world, you have so many things which are connected today. And that means electrical grid. Zoom in communications. Education which is centralized and connected to Cloud. Whatever you imagine, it is connected. Probably also have our minds and some extent connected to the next. Everything connectible is hackable and basically there is no more cyberspace. We have lived in a blind space of online and real world. Now where I'm coming to?
There's one interesting, one useful equation, if you wish, that the people like to emphasize. That is we calculate the risk as a combination of assets, or the value of the assets. Then we have rulabilities. You can imagine it if you are visual types. You can imagine it as a small branch. We have some ducklings which are walking over the river on the branch which has a crack in it. Down there you have crocodiles. The risk is if you have crocodiles and the ducklings which is an asset that you want to protect and the branch which is rollover. If you look at cyber space, all those elements are huge. The ducklings are the assets that we want to protect. We have computers and data and then we have privacy issues and so on. Now we see we also have hospitals. We have a person who died some years ago in Germany because the hospital was under cyber attack. More over we have democracy and values and systems that we basically have to protect. So the values of the assets is growing immensely. If you look at vulnerabilities, almost every device, every software, every hardware has some vulnerability. It is intrinsic to technology, but it is intrinsic to humans. 99% of cyber attacks come as a result of a human hacker or human social engineer.
And then if you look at threats, the crocky dials, used to be petty criminals back in the days. Now you have organized criminal groups that can hack anywhere around the world and your government. We marked about 50 governments that say they have certain capabilities to conduct military cyber attacks. Very sophisticated. When you have these actors with immense resources, it is much harder to defend.
If you look at the picture of duckling its crack the branch with crocodiles, imagine who is behind all this and how can we solve these problems? On a vulnerability level, it is about technology companies which have to ensure product are less vulnerable and most secure. It is about regulators and policymakers that have to incentivize the producers and vendors and ourselves as users to ask for more secure products. Then if you look at the assets, it is about things that are societal. The privacy, elections, it is about policy in a broad sense that Barrack mentioned and if you look at threats, we need mechanisms to combat those threats whether criminal groups, whether in a sense cyber crime laws and ways to enforce that and we also need the international business security framework, which is developing now in the United Nations. In all of those, you can see different players. It is the government, the regulators, the Private Sector and us as the users and Technical Community setting standards. Now stop there just to showcase the complexity in why we need you and all of us together. I'm really glad to see you sitting over there. So I am back to you and open for any questions. Thank you.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thank you very much, Vlada. Now I am handing it over to Lily.
>> Edinam Lily Botsyoe: I can listen to Mr. Vlad A. each of us are susceptible to attacks online. We have a position to maximize the youth and space and data spaces because we are keeping them with skills. We held them to requesting the why, the what and the how. So everybody is susceptible and we're looking at the broad range. We cannot essentially rule out the rules that exist online, but threats and vulnerabilities and ones people are on the other end try to evade. So how do we make sure there is that responsibility taken and somebody has a role to play and somebody is accountable for something. He has mentioned some of them. We're bringing on you the journey and how we're seeking to ensure that there is safety for people that are using the Internet? So one thing I want you to remember, even though we're susceptible to attacks online, the reason is because the responsibility for us to play for government, for manufactures and for international (?) like you said. We have the cybersecurity from the past that looks at how we're safe guarding the cyberspace and devices that are in all of that and we're looking at human rights part which deals to a large extent on privacy and how we can protect people's rights on the online space. Think about the devices that are protected and also you and how you are also going to be protected. So this side by side what you have for the hardware interest devices and cyberspace and for you, what can you do or what can governments do? Now we'll hear about legislation and policy. Think about it. Without policy, all the things are flying in a giant network. So it is not policy you are reenforcing the biases injustices that are offline. Things guiding the use of technology so that access in the good way as humans. And another part is what government and blocks across the world working on when it comes to just conventions for personal data and for cybersecurity in a sense. So your role because of human heart and social engineering, do we have enough education that we can protect our own use of the Internet. So there are responsibilities and opening up conversation to see who has a role to play and where we can start from what you know by way of the protection that exists currently and how we can build on that.
>> Thanks very much, Lily. I think there are two things. Firstly, how is that policy made? Was it made in a way that was inclusionive, that involved the views of those that have to comply with that policy? I think that's very important to remember. And was it made in a whole society way? Was security and securing the assets that Vlada described so well? Is that policy just about regime security or government security or is it about security of the Internet and people's information and communications? And in the second but is: Do our institutions of governments, regulators and areas that are in the global south have the capacity to implement that policy? So many developing country governments are burdened by complex policy frameworks that they then struggle to implement effectively because they lack the capacity? So just a bit of reality check there for me. To give us more on this topic, we're going to the youth now.
We have Thoko Miya. Roman, why don't you go ahead. We have a little bit of time. We will open the floor if anyone else wants to make an intervention, you can start by raising your hand or if you're online raising your hand online and we'll have very short 1‑minute inputs. But let's first hand over to Roman who is Roman Chukov who is the Russian coordinator.
>> Roman Chukov: Hello, everyone. It's a huge pleasure and honor to start this experience with this youth component and thanks to the organizers, the secretariat and all of us that work to make it happen. Very interesting and very new fresh ideas and very good to see the young people here are sitting on the table and not on the menu when we are not participating in decision making. Of course, I wish that our participation was more meaningful and it could result with some forth coming plan, roadmaps, action plans and ability that we are capable of doing this. Also what we're capable is ensuring countries and young people receive access to technologies. We have been lobbying for this even in Russia with the highest penetration in our region. We still have schools and remote areas where we need to work in that direction and every other call is that this is the priority number 1 to ensure that everyone from the youth is connected. Second I believe that in order to prevent the pandemic of happening online, we all should be very careful and we should educate the new generations how to use the internet safely and all of us also can work together to ensure youth position and youth vision to be included specifically and I would say comprehensively to the global digital compact. I see this is maybe the first opportunity for us to act together as one youth voice and to show our ideas, show that we want to have new frameworks as it was outlined by the first speaker. Let's say rules of the game with the rule of young people. I believe the most interesting process is ongoing and just starting now. I wish all of us good luck and lots of energy and passion to drive this forward and thanks to our mentors and colleagues who are always taking care of us. I imagine that together we can make it. So let's wish us all luck. Thank you.
>> Thanks, Roman. We take care of the youth because they take care of us.
[Laughter]
When we are older. I'm saying that as an older person who takes care of my 91‑year‑old mother and my children know they are on the line.
[Laughter]
We have a bit of time. So is there anyone before we go into our next speaker, anyone who wants to make a short input or question for one of the speakers for Vlada or Lily or Roman. You can settle down and breathe a little bit. Is there anyone else who wants to make an intervention or have a question? Just switch on your mic, introduce yourself and be brief.
>> Okay. My name is Jose. I would like to follow up our discussion we had in maLouie during IGF, Africa IGF. I would like to know what is the next ‑‑ the state of our engagement of the youth. Should we continue to advocate like this or should we advocate to be recognized as a former stakeholder? I mean, having young people among governments or Private Sectors doesn't mean these young people can advocate for our rights in countries like mine, for instance, where I come from days and Internet and government used to do it. I don't see a young person can say to a government no. Don't shut Internet because it is a right. We need a formal seed for young people among the global Mac IGF. So I think you remember about what we have said and I want you to take this into consideration. And young people presenting here in this room, if you do agree with this idea, just give some applause, please.
>> Thanks for that question. We'll come back to it. So let's continue the discussion. We have a few minutes. Next person also introduce yourself and be brief. And maybe you can gather your thoughts and I invite other people playing a leadership role in the youth to think of a response to that very important question. Go ahead.
>> Hello, everyone. From Tunisia. Digital rights advocate. My question is how much we doing to engage youth? Are we using in our project, in our intervention youth‑friendly approaches because the internet governance or violence. I'm really glad to see all want youths gathered in this room. But usually they do not really throughout many youth, many of the youth are not ‑‑ they do not understand what it means, they do not understand or know how to ‑‑ who are to take part of this topic, how to entvine or participate. How much we doing to help them be engaged to understand to what level we're using your friendly approach.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Lily, would you respond to that?
>> I agree absolutely. Why are we not talking about TikTok or intetagram and the ‑‑ Instagram or the opportunities to influence those. I think we tend to try and formalize youth participation, integrate it into, you know, the governments, the platforms, you know, international Civil Society, organizations are talking about and there's a whole wealth of governance challenges that are directly related to how youth are using and shaping the internet. Good point. I'm going to give the floor now to Lily to respond and Thoko is going to make an intervention after that.
>> Lily: Innovative ways to engage young people in conversations. Like madame said, the issue has been a matter of personas and pathways. We know young people like Mr. Barrack said, a lot of things were motioned that the other platforms which are probably ways that we would like to be engaged and how we would like to add inputs and voices.
Now, this conversation has pretty much (inaudible) and responded to a lot to understand. There's a session going on today. They're going to talk about youth metastation. It's going to be describing how young people can be engaged in the way that doesn't look like formal representation just like we're seated and more like being there and there because you want to get the numbers. But in a way, it is so much present and ideas have been at the point where these are actually considered. So like you said, if it is by will of a hackathon, maybe feel and be able to communicate. That should be taken up.
We're had issues of hackathons come up and I have to say that everybody's idea can be pretty much infusion to what you want to do. What you're looking to do is: How do we envision that youth can be engaged in a way that is meaningful to ask and how we can move conversations ahead. So that is pretty much the ways you're looking at beyond just that. How do we do that? Is it by programs? Is it by everything that young people like to do? So those are ways we are engaging and I think we're on the part to doing that.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks, Lily. Thoko?
>> Thoko Miya: Hello, everybody. I am privileged to be part of organizing one of four workshops and I'm really excited to be here and attending the finale at the IGF youth summit. It's an incredible privilege to see a room that's full with young people and old people and to see the kind of interest that is firstly not just interest, but participation. It is wonderful to see young people coming from all around the world. And it speaks to my first point. So I am the (?) agency. And the reason I started this company is because in my home country, there is an over 63% unemployment rate. That's what needs to be addressed in the policy concerns that we're going to be talking about. Over the course of the conference, there will be various experts speaking about all the wonderful things coming with the digital rise and revolution and what this means. It is timey to take ownership and contribute to the fact that we are the innovators and next level and we have to stand up and speak out. When we enter rooms, it is up to us to make those interventions and see where it is that we're able to create the solutions that we require to create the impact that we want to see amplified and see a rise in young people's capabilities, but not only capabilities, young people interacting and engaging in the formal economy and taking charge of not only their own futures, but future generations to come and seeing that, you know what, this is something that I would for myself want to see as a change in my community and how can I stop by leading the change is firstly by taking that impact myself. So absolutely. It is on every single one of us to take away from this conference to bring into this conference and into this summit on opportunities. Thanks.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks very much, Thoko. I think we have one more speaker. Go ahead. And then we'll move on to the next session. I have not forgotten the question that's been asked. We'll come back to it. Emmanuel, over to you.
>> Emmanuel: This is Emmanuel from IGF. To respond to the question of the colleague, he was making a question. Right now regarding the what can we do? Should we continue making the noise? Somebody asked a question to know as youth, should we just continue having meetings like this? But one thing from my personal experience is when we met in 2016, one of the key points was engage with policymakers. I think that was the Parliamentary track. So one thing that we can do is to engage with them those Parliamentarians, especially from various countries. In countries like the country I'm coming from, I don't think that most of the colleagues and policymakers of government their interest is to protect citizens. That's not a case in most cases. You notice that usually they want to adapt the policy to the global leader situation. Sometimes, for example, countries vote for the deportation laws not because they want to protect citizens. That's where you look at Africa right now. The number of countries have such laws and many. How many of him have ‑‑ we have to start engaging but in good laws. That's very important. You talk about international. We do have good laws in some countries, but we don't test them. As young people, we have to start testing those laws. If you look at the case in Nigeria, they condemn it to the government and that's original. If the citizens take that step of the organizations, I don't think today would have that in the Africa region where a government has been condemned for shutting down the internet. So we have to test our laws and celebrate our small victories.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks and I think you partially answered that question, but I think you did. That youth have to participate, have to participate in policy making and national level. They have to participate globally. I think the question was a tactical question. Do you form structures as youth in order to participate and in order to be represented consistently or do you work as individuals or, you know, integrate into other advocacy groups. The answer is probably both, but we'll come back to that.
We need to move on. I want to stress two points that Thoko made and that is that if youth are being constrained by poverty, by unemployment, by social and economic marginalization, political and Internet governance and empowerment is very hard to achieve. So we never really are going to have empowered youth participating in a youth sensitized Internet governance if we don't address those underlosing social and inequalities. You will never have young women participate in Internet governance if women do not have equal rights. So I think that's just important for us to be reminded that the struggle has to take place. Also at that base level of creating more equal and more just societies and economies.
We're now moving to our next segment that was the third question that we're addressing. And that's really ‑‑ you have taken us there towards a better digital future. What do we do now for a better tomorrow? What are the action oriented insights that youth have gained about ensuring a safer, securer, sustainable digital environment. Particularly through collaboration intergenerational collaboration and collaboration with leaders and experts.
We have with us ‑‑ is he here online? To be yeas Bacherle. Tobias, are you with us?
>> Tobias Bacherle: Yes. I'm with you. Yet from Berlin.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: He's with us online. Please go ahead, Tobias.
>> Tobias Bacherle: Thank you very much and all the best from Berlin. I'm sadly joining you tomorrow on site.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: We can't hear you yet. Can the tech team just assist, please?
>> Tobias Bacherle: I keep talking, but starting with two important things.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Tobias can be heard on Zoom, but we cannot hear him in the room.
>> Tobias Bacherle: I ‑‑ um ‑‑ I keep talking so you might recognize me hearing, but, ah, I see a ‑‑
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Now we can hear you.
>> Tobias Bacherle: Yes! Great. Greetings from Berlin. I am very happy I can join you online. I will be on site tomorrow. Looking forward to that. I have a question fostering the possibilities of digital times. And I want to start with one part. I am a member of the German Parliament for the green. I will start with the possibilities of green tack. And when we talk about green tack and sustainability possibilities, I do believe there are three things we need to highlight that have as I said incredible potential. First of all, the possibilities of green tack itself having digital solutions that connect people and therefore, for example, it's a very basic example. You don't have to drive somewhere. You don't have to fly somewhere. But there are so many possibilities in digital innovation where we can become more sustainable in the way we live together. I don't go into details. Probably all of you know what I'm talking about.
The other point and this is something that has a huge outcome is the question of greener tech. How can we develop technology and digital infrastructure in a way that it's not as harmful for the environment that, for example, the servers are better used, for example, for heating and buildings nearby.
The third part is one that's a matter of rebound facts. If you have green tech, if you have a digital solution, it's often the case that it actually saves energy, saves resources, but then people start to use it even more, which is a great thing, but I think sometimes it needs to be discussed where the limits to digital tech actually is and where do we have a certain rebound effect where we have a great innovation, but in the end haven't used that much and it is way more harmful. And in that case, all of those I believe can be a driving force or must be a driving force. I'm saying this as a young member from the Parliament being well aware that young people are voting for my party, but are not voting for my party. I would say most of them are in Germany voting for our main cause the question of climate protection.
On the of the hand, young people often are digital Natives. I will do one quick shift into that because when I say often, I do believe this shows how global connectivity is. When we talk about a young generation, that is digital Natives that understands the impacts of the attacking further and deeper because it has been raised up with it. And also I think shows the necessity to give access to digital connectivity to basically everyone because otherwise the gap between those who have access and those who do not have access will only keep up spreading and widener. When we think about those people who started to work on basically got connected in an old age, they are rather starting on an even playing field. If we have one part of the world or some people having great connectivity living up with digital connectivity, that's something people have to catch up on later.
I do believe they understand the impact of digital tech way more enhanced and deeper. They are a driving force behind it. They also can be like warning signs for things to go wrong not only when it equipments to rebound and green tack, but also when it comes to a matter of privacy and having digital tack actually enabling human rights and enabling Free Speech and enabling privacy and not having the opposite. Thank you very much for listening to some of my thoughts on why and how we can pursuit digital 3‑year tack.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks very much, Tobias. For reminding us that a digital future is meaningless if we don't have a sustainable planet and a sustainable environment.
And next we have Jenna Fung. Jenna is with us online as well. GenAlet's hear from you.
>> Jenna Fung: Thank you very much. Can you guys hear me? Great. Thank you very much for giving me the time and having me on this panel joining Tobias on this topic of making our digital better and internet better.
I really like Tobias topic that covered a wide area of how to make internet safer and secure and sustainable.
So I would like to raise two points that we have got from the youth in Asia‑Pacific 2 months ago. I think there is two points the youth would like to bring and contribute to the process in making our Internet better and digital better by closing the gaps and knowledge and mutual understanding between generations in the Internet policy community as well as developing and supporting models for meaningful participation because IGF itself is a complex ecosystem without participation from all stakeholder. And as a youth individuals and leadership who works closely with newcomer in the ecosystem, I can reassure you that empowering next generation is the key to sustain the multi‑stakeholder model for our policy making discussion.
For the first one to clarify, I believe there are things we should do to close the gap and knowledge not only in youth in terms of their experience and knowledge and related issues and topic, but also we should work on closing mutual understanding between generations in our community. There is the theme of Asia‑Pacific and context of transifting state of youth is in and how it influences discussion on sustainability and inclusion for engagement. For many years, we have been focusing on closing knowledge gaps and empowering youth with capacity to catch up with discussion from the majority. Undeniably, that's important for newcomers. However, that community neglect the fact that other stakeholders as well as members in the community is also one of the major factors for sustainability and inclusion of meaningful participation that may eventually contribute to more sustainable digital future. While mostly focus on empowering our youth, I think we have done lots of great work in dimple regions already and then I believe most of you manage to meet so many other youth coordinators and in the room this year and I would like to say a big thanks to everyone who has been contributing to the process of making this youth global youth summit happen because this year, many of the coordinators sit together with the u NIGF Secretariat to make this event happen in an inclusive and open way and I really appreciate it.
From the Asia‑Pacific perspective, some time hard for more people to engage in global IGF or some other Internet governance event in could to join the policy making process. And from a lesson that we got from Asia‑Pacific this year, we realized that decentralized funding and supporting model may be the future of meaningful participations of the youth because taking examples of the Asia‑Pacific, we managed to get some Private Sectors or organizations to support the individuals from the local community to join our regional meetings. I believe that's very important because that is how the youth can get into a bigger stage to meet other people in order to make change.
Three years back, we joined my first global youth summit in belin for IGF 2019. That's one of the inspirations on how I think as a youth coordinator for Asia‑Pacific IGF I should take of those models because the coordinators of that is global youth summit and all the organizers were trying so hard to get so many different Private Sectors in helping youth to get engaged and stay engaged. So perhaps I think it's time for us to think on and work harder on how we ensure the continuation and consistency of youth engagement and make our work better and great together. Thank you have much.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thank you very much, Jenna, for that input. I think we have heard about having impact. I think Emmanuel talked about impact at the national level. Tobias demonstrated impact at national level is a young parliamentarian in the German Parliament. And Jenna is talking about regional. You will have impact in regional. So this global process is extremely important but we cannot put all your eggs in the basket of the global IGF. For you to have influence and impact, they need to work and organize and participate nationally and regionally as well.
And to open us with some comments and questions for Tobias and Jenna, I want to invite Phyo who is the youth IGF courtedinator. I met her this morning. There she S. please, Phyo, please take the floor.
>> Phyo: Hello. Hello. Hello? Hello, everyone. I'm Phyo and I'm your IGF coordinator. First, thank you for sharing very insightful knowledge and insightful input from the speaker and I would like to continue to discuss about sustain act and the safer Internet and also about the secure Internet as well. I think it is important that you are plague a role in the community for in order to sustain our community as well. I also think it is important that the approach is playing the key role to shape the policies and develop the policy as well. One thing is other young people playing a key role. I think they are lacking their specific spot for getting involved in the policy development process. Yes. We can see that there are many (inaudible) on the other hand, the challenges are belong with us as well. A questioning the rules of the young people specific information in the policy making and the discussion of the digital policy development as well. In addition to that, I think young people need the support from the community and for involvement in this community. Whatever we are doing and whatever where we're being here. For the young people from the communities, let's say from end of developing country, it is impossible to attend a conference like this one because it is very costly for them as well. So I think there are things depending on the financial sustainability. So I would like to mention that sustainability is also depending on the financial stuff they develop as well. So why I mentioned about the UNI is playing an important role. They are the main player who is having to engage with the community as well as their regional community as well. So in terms of improving the internet development and improving knowledge on the internet, the young people, the youth (?) from the different communities because of oh, vents like this one ‑‑ events like this one.
Finally, I would like to question to all of the young people here. Have you thought about how to protect our things and why (?) safer Internet. Have you talk about how we can protect ourselves and have you already ‑‑ have you been thinking about how we can educate people from young people and how to protect yourself online because we can see that many end users are now coming from the technical backgrounds. So I think we also need educating program for the digital safety and securities with kinds of education programs that are also needed for them especially to those end users who are using thend net.
On the other hand, I think the BASIS knowledge about the application, as Mr. Barrack mentioned, we have to maintain when we are developing one thing. We have to make ‑‑ we have to think about how to maintain that one.
Another prospectives that we can think about how we can share the knowledge about using that application to the customer of the end user as well. Yeah. This is ‑‑
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thank you, thanks very much for that. We have Tobias and Jenna. Do you want to respond to Phyo's question? You have one minute each.
>> Tobias Bacherle: I agree. Digital literacy is key. When you talk about digital literacy in schools, that is also key. You have one problem that teachers are all there out of the university. You need to get teachers back on track. They need to be educated and upfront when it comes to this information on digital literacy and so on and safety in the Internet and everything. But they need to be educated and not fearful of the Internet. That's very important. But you also need other institutions working on that. For example, we have a young content network of the public broadcast in Germany. They have educational purposes as well and they're also doing a lot of things on safety and the internet on how to be safe. So those are things that are two very important things. And besides that, address it publicly as often and, of course, every security breach that needs an update or where you need to update your passports and so on, address it publicly and try to reach as many people as possible.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks, Tobias. Jenna, you want to add something quickly?
>> Jenna Fung: I think we should make this education process compulsory in school like in the public education system. And then I think Tobias mentioned about the barriers or challenges behind it. I personally am a person that strongly adcoicate for collaborations between stakeholders. So maybe one of the ways to have our university educate our youth, we can do it. I think some of the speakers mentioned most of the youth are digital Natives. And then some of the youth are getting old and they may have the experience to educate our next generation which is younger. I think some of the people in Asia‑Pacific mentioned to me two years ago we should start this digital literacy educations when they're young, when they're in primary school, not when they're in universities. So I'm confident that we may have the capacity to do this kind of education at certain levels. That's where I want to end. Thank you.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks very much, Jenna and Tobias. We need to move. We're coming to the end of our session. In the IGF village, you will find a booth called the digital security hub. What you will find there is people that will help you with digital security but also with green tech and sustainable, use of sustainable energy and renewable energy with hosting and with technology. So anybody who wants to learn more about sustainable technology and also about digital security, there are people in the IGF village who can help you. Thanks very much, everyone. We're coming to the end.
Next I want to invite to the floor. She's with us online. Ms. Hillary backry from the United Nations voice. Hillary, are you able to join us and take the floor?
>> Yes. Hello, everyone. My name is Hillary. Firstly before I start, please allow me to thank UN DESA and as well as the whole country for highlighting youth as an aspect of this year's forum.
So allow me to start by reminding all of us that we are living in unprecedented times and highlight some of the points that our youth speakers have raced. Our world is the most connected generation of young people the world has seen, but a generation living in triple plantary crisis, a threat and global economy crisis. I want to highlight this. As we order from all three different dialogues in the youth summit, we can see that despite all this challenges, young people and those were present here in the room, online as well as many others out there are resilient, hopeful and also resourceful. As also highlighted in the early discussion, digital transformation comes with a lot of exciting opportunities. Just a few months ago at the summit in New York, young activists and teachers highlighted that it is indeed, possible to achieve the highest aspiration for education and life‑long learning, digital transformations Lees no one behind ‑‑ Lees no one behind. They called for democratization of accessibility that can positively help facilitate and a transition that our world desperately, desperately needs. They also highlightd this on technology and how young people have called for it. A lot of this exciting opportunities can be achieved obviously. We ensure people have include equal partners. I think that's the key word to not only be engaged as participant, but also as equal partners because young people are the ones that can help shape the course of opportunities for the better. They are cape am of leading not just as partners, but also experts and I'm sure you can agree after hearing young people that have shared intervention here today and in the forum. Even here as I said in the Internet governance forum, I think many of my fellow speakers highlighted earlier that young people did not wait and sit still but they also apicated themselves to be included in this table and many other tables and mobilize to ensure young people's participation and this forum is institutionalized; however, it is important for all of us to abknowledge that technology is not mutual and it is being the lifelong. A lot of young people as is user at risk. Earlier last year, our office launched the global report on protection of young people in civic space where the report highlighted that 78% of the youth respondents as you reported they have experienced some sort of digital threats. Moreover for young women and girls as we know they're increasing and in a recent survey, I believe launched by planet international, 14,000 young women and girls, they shared experiences they had online harassment. Speakers have highlight earlier with Internet shut downs continues to exist and increasing, come further excluding young people from civil participation.
Please allow me to emphasize to ignore the digital threats and ignore the structure barriers that take place against the most vulnerable is turn your back on digital Natives where you really need commitment and investment as many of the speakers have highlighted earlier. They're directed to achieve this. We need a digital future that is not only inclusive, but also safe, trustworthy and reliable. An Internet that can serve as the lifeline for digital transformation. And also inclusivity to address this digital device that does exist. At the UN, with the UN Secretary General, human rights is the foundational pillar. So according to Secretary General call for the Internet governance forum to have governance of the comments and it is reallymycin seer hope and my office that the insights and recommendations and calls for collaboration for young people to share in our dialogue today can be taken forward to partnership at global level beyond this forum particularly also the recommendation that young people have called and have been highlighted by Lily, and many other speakers earlier and having a stronger educational resources, digital literacy for young people including having capability on protection, digital safety and how to uphold human rights online. I believe they highlighted previous speaker Jenna on addressing people to contribute to the process and leveraging on both multi‑stakeholder to support participation across forums and processees. I really like to urge everyone, the young people here and everywhere, the policymakers, industries to also see our recommendation introducing the United Nations earlier. This year in particular the global compact recommendation as an opportunity to collaborate together and shaping an open, free and secure digital future for all of us through a multi‑stakeholder approach. Some speakers highlighted this and I will share the information through the Zoom link. Our office, the office of secretary generally looks forward with collaboration of the tech and also the partners that are already engaged here, but also those who are just starting to join to ensure young people can be included in shapings process. We can achieve attains formation that can benefit all youth and diversity. I thank you once again for having us and congratulations once again for a very, very colorful discussion.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thank you very much, Hillary. And thank you for emphasizings importance of the centrality of human rights. And of inclusivity and for reminding us about the opportunity presented by the global digital compact, the process which is open. It's online. Youth can submit input into the development of that document which will then be discussed by UN member states in 2024, the summit of the future. And that's an opportunity for you to actually draft input as a collective but also as individuals about how you feel and our global digital future, what principles it should be based on.
Lily has an announcement about what you can do if you want to continue this discussion online and then we'll bring our session to a close.
>> Lily: Right. Thank you, everyone for your participation and inputs. We want to have this and a way to continue the conversation and to essentially have our recommendations come for discussions. So you will have links shared. You will find a link for participation and in the various groups that exist and how you can participate beyond in meeting. People who are on site, there is another one and there will somebody sessions you will be invited to and you will be invited to continue the conversation. And pretty much have a conversation to move forward. Look out for those two. If you have questions, you're not able to find a link and be sure to find me and ask for that. Thank you.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thanks, Lily. If you're not yet on the mailing list of IGF youth, what do you do?
>> Lille I: Absolutely. The IGF website, you need to find a mailing list. The link you subscribe to and the team will help you update in a day or two.
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: And I'm on that list. I can tell those that are not young, they lit all the people on that list. Empowering people is an intergenerational. We have the Minister with us, which is fantastic while Lily is giving up her seat. I am very honored to invite to give us some closing remarks. The state mennist rear from the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, this is the ministry that is our host working really hard to prepare. And you have been on a panel before so I am very haglad to have you here ‑‑ I am very glad to have you here. We will give us some closing remarks and I am very happy that you came on time. So please go ahead.
>> Thank you so much. Good afternoon all users, beautiful users. How are you? We're happy to host you. We're very glad. I hope you will have a very enjoyable and successful time. So we are very happy to have you here in Ethiopia. We hope that you will get a lot of relevant benefits from this forum as a youth. You know, you guys are the power for the (?).
So let me start my closing speech. First I would like to start by thanking all of you for participating in this historical event. So the speakers for their excellent thought provoke talks, moderators for organizing and maintaining the agenda using timely reasonably. I would like also to thank all participants, your inputs to the workshop contribute immensely to the panel. The IGF 2022, you create a state of activities to connect youth from around the world and make themselves and also create opportunities for them to network with senior stakeholders, experts, Internet, governance. I can see the IGF 2022 youth summit is a success and congratulations to all of you.
I don't want to repeat summaries from this sessions, Chairperson. Let me try to share with you my personal take away from this youth submit. The digital transformation was the main topic of interest to youths. The capacity of development activities, tackle specific issues listed under this. Users are the power of today and the hope for the future. The youths agenda on the digital transformation programs is not for the sake of the youth persons. They benefit from digital transformation; however, includings youths in digital transformation, agenda will help countries realize immense powers and ideas which directly contribute to the development of the country. If we don't include the youth agenda in the digital transformation, it's not only the contribution of the youths that we love. It's the future of the country that we comprised.
The domains of education, economy and peace can be advanced by going digital; however, to create a real impact, there is a need to have wholistic approach providing infrastructure is a necessary condition that is in section 1 to gain the benefits skills, right content and above all affordable access is necessary. The digital transformation provides a real opportunity for social prosperity if all the components are present namely affordable infrastructure, relevant digital content and the right skills. Online harms and cyber attacks can be the cause for not properly using available infrastructures such as they can handle the use of digital systems and cause further harm by inhabiting equal access and equal opportunity. Stakeholders should consider facts to create an Internet to benefit all.
Ladies and gentlemen, the youth summit is very useful and should continue. I hope everybody agrees with me. Please show me your agreement by applause.
[APPLAUSE]
I'm very happy to announce the youth summit will continue and be held in Japan next year in 2023. We wish you all the best. Thank you so much.
[APPLAUSE]
>> HURIA ALI MAHDI: Thank you very much, Minister. It means a lot to have you here. So everyone, we bring this session to a close. I think Minister Maddie reminded us that we will meet again next year. The discussion showed us there will be many things done. Nationally, regionally, globally, issue based, but we also need to consider how we organize. So it's not just about participating. It is also about institutionalizing as Barrack said. I am using that in a positive way. Creating structures that provide continuity for youth participation at different levels.
So I want to apologize to the non‑english speakers. I know it was difficult to follow. Unfortunately, there is no interpretation. Particularly trying to listen and follow. Special welcome to the Bangladesh hub. I'm sorry we couldn't take your question. And to everyone who worked to organize this session. She sits over there. Ania, you know how vital she is to prosess. She's not alone. Please give a big applause to ania and all the IGF youth coordinators who are here and who are virtual.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you very much. This session is now closed.
>> Can I just suggest one thing now that we have some time for lunch. Could I suggest to take a photo at the official booth screen so we make it a little bit more official than the one we made when we entered?