IGF 2023 Day 0 Event #16 Youth participation: co-creating the Insafe network

Reaching children in vulnerable situations is a challenging task. In today’s world, children face vulnerability for a wide range of reasons: poverty, disability, mental health issues, abuse or neglect, family breakdown, homelessness, discrimination, and social exclusion, migration not to be left out. Various programs are designed to help social groups from diverse backgrounds, including those who are vulnerable. While these groups face different challenges, they all share a common need for online safety in an increasingly complex social environment. That said, all children can be considered as vulnerable since they develop in a world where decisions are made by others/adults, with an often very different perspective, feeling the pressure to adapt in a world where rights are not protected, risks are everywhere, and the technological developments in the digital environment surpass any imagination. In such an environment, and facing a multitude of everyday problems, children are called to develop emotionally, intellectually, technologically in a world where their voice it not heard and decisions are made by others, often not as familiarized with or concerned for their needs. The new European strategy for a Better Internet for Kids (BIK+ Better Internet for Kids Strategy), adopted by the European Commission in May 2022, aims to provide a delicate balance between digital participation, empowerment, and protection of children in the digital environment. BIK+ comes as an adaptation to the 2012 BIK strategy, following a decade where technological developments exceeded any expectation. The new strategy, adopted after a long consultation process, aims to place children at the forefront of developments/decisions that will be adopted by key stakeholders and the industry that concern the digital environment in the years to come. Children, as the digital citizens of the future, and being raised in a digital environment deserve to have a saying to what concerns the developments, protective measures, and their rights, and to shape the world they will live in. Based on the above critical and thoughtful elements, the BIK+ strategy places emphasis to the following three pillars: 1. Provide children with a secure digital environment that safeguards them from harmful and illegal online content, conduct, contact, and risks, while also enhancing their well-being by ensuring age-appropriate content and respecting their best interests. 2. Empower all children, including those in vulnerable situations, with the skills and competencies required to make sound decisions and express themselves safely and responsibly in the online environment. 3. Encourage active participation by respecting children's opinions and incorporating more child-led activities in the digital environment to promote innovative and creative safe digital experiences. Against this background, European Safer Internet Centres (co-funded by the European Commission) as part of the Insafe-INHOPE network aim to further implement the objectives of the BIK+ strategy at national and regional level. By putting policies into practice, youth participation has become a vital part of the daily work of the European Safer Internet Centres, involving youth in awareness raising activities, consultations, and co-design processes, among others. In 2022, across the Insafe-INHOPE network (currently consisting of 27 co-funded SICs) approximately 471 youth participation activities were organized reaching over 5,300 children and adolescents across Europe. To give further insights into this work, during this Day 0 event participants will hear from representatives of 5 European Safer Internet Centres (namely Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, and Poland), sharing their national (and regional) best practices on active youth participation. The presentations will be complemented by youth voices, with young people from the Better Internet for Kids Youth Ambassador network (ref. About - Youth corner (bikyouth.eu), sharing some short messages/interventions online. The Day 0 event will be hosted in an interactive manner, starting with presentations from the speakers followed by a discussion and Q/A round, facilitated jointly by the on-site and online moderator, to allow participants on-site and online to interact with the speakers.

1) One on-site moderator and two online moderators will jointly host this Day 0 event. One online moderator will build the bridge between the online attendees (and online speakers if applicable) and the on-site moderator, alerting her each time a question/comment is made by the online attendees. The second online moderator (as part of the Day 0 organizing team; name to be confirmed closer to date and once time of session is announced), will take care of written responses while the session is running, making sure questions/comments are responded to “on the go”, while also posting useful links/references in the chat for the online attendees to consult. 2) The Day 0 event will be supported by Power Point presentations, each speaker (present on-site or online) will have a short slide deck prepared to support his/her intervention. This will make the presentation more accessible to both on-site and online participants. After each presentation, a few minutes will be given to the on-site and online audience for Q/A. The on-site moderator together with two online moderators will facilitate the Q/A making sure questions and comments from on-site and online are equally considered. 3) Social media platforms (e.g. Twitter), the Day 0 event will be accompanied by a dedicated hashtag (in addition to the IGF conference hashtags) which will be communicated by the on-site and online moderators at the beginning of the session. All participants are encouraged to use the hashtag, to share comments and feedback from the session with the wider IGF community and to engage in further discussions on the topic, beyond the duration of the Day 0 event. In addition, each speaker may include further interactive online tools (e.g. Mentimeter, Miror) into their presentations to further increase participation during the event.