Workshop Report: Challenging Myths about Young People and the Internet

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Tim

Below is the formal report from Workshop 92, Challenging Myths about Young People and the Internet, organised by, and including, many members of the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance at this years IGF meeting in Nairobi. You can find tweets about the meeting here. For the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance, challenging the myths outlined below, and creating a stronger, clearer and more positive dialogue on the Internet for youth is a key goal. 

Workshop 92: Challenging Myths about Young People and the Internet

Claims about youth are central to many Internet Governance discussions. However, many of the claims made about youth and the Internet are based on myth and misperception rather than on reality.

Myths come in a variety of forms. Some are compelling, but mistaken claims: intuitively plausible, but not backed by evidence and research. Others are based on stereotypes or distorted media coverage given to issues. Other myths are propagated by those with vested interests or particular agendas, seeking to secure support for their cause by making exaggerated claims.

Workshop 92 provided a space for constructive dialogue about how we should understand claims made about young people in Internet Governance. Contributions from ten panellists and the floor addressed a wide range of  myths or misunderstandings about young people and technology: highlighting where we need to think more deeply before making Internet policy based upon generalisations about children, young people and young adults.

This report looks at the myths in turn, before reporting some general points from discussion at the end. The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance will continue to develop a resource based on these myths to offer as an input for future IGF sessions.

The Myths

Myth: Young people are either digital natives, or digitally naive (Sheba Mohammid)

Our descriptions of youth and technology are frequently polarised with youth described as opposite extremes: either as digital natives, with ubiquitous understanding of technology, or digitally naive, and in need of protection. This can lead to technology projects ignoring the need to do work on pedagogical systems and educating youth; or it can lead to responses that perceive only the need for control and protection of young people online.

There is limited dialogue between those who describe youth as ‘natives’ and those who focus on youth ‘naivete’. The tendency to pigeonhole young people into one category or the other prevents us from developing a deeper understanding of diverse youth experiences of networked media, and how individuals can have different experiences at different times and in different spaces.

Talking about ‘digital natives’ or ‘digital naivete’ may have intuitive and rhetorical appeal – but whenever speakers use these phrases, they gloss over the reality of young people’s online lives and can lead to unhelpful policy responses. The following myths explore in more detail the subtleties that we need to bring to our discussions.

Myth: The Internet is a dangerous, dangerous place (Alannah Travers)

“There are dangers online, as in the real world, but that doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad, or only dangerous and never good.” 

Starting from the assumption that the Internet is inherently a dangerous place can have negative impacts on policy. It’s important to develop skills and resilience to protect yourself, and, as with crossing the road, once you’ve learned to manage the dangers, you can be secure and safe.

Myth: The Internet is a free playground for youth (Max Kall)

“The myth is that youth regard the Internet as a free and anarchic playground where they can do whatever they want, and actions can unfold in whichever way they desire. Young people can spend hours and hours on social networks, gaming, and the myth is that young people think it’s all free. It’s all open and whatever you do, it does not yield any negative consequences. 

The opposite is actually the truth. For many young people the Internet is everything but free.”

Youth are frequently aware of the possibility of surveillance from law enforcement authorities, companies, employers or just from teachers or parents, and this can lead to ‘chilling effects’, limiting freedom of expression and democratic participation on the Internet.

The impact of these chilling effects vary from country to country, with a BBC survey finding that up to 49% of people in ‘democratic countries’ agreed with statements that the Internet is not a free space, rising to 70% is some countries. One workshop participant highlighted self-censorship by bloggers in the Congo. By contrast, in France and Kenya, the BBC survey found that 70% or more of people did regard the Internet as a free space. As with any claim about youth and the Internet we need to question the geographic and cultural specificity of the claim. Regardless, the levels of young people feeling inhibited in their free expression of political views online should be a cause for concern.

Myth: Youth don’t care about privacy (Kellye Coleman and Connor Dalby)

“…there is a myth that youth don’t care about privacy. I think youth do care but at the same time youth don’t fully understand what privacy means.”

Young people value education that empowers them to make positive privacy choices, where reasons are given for why certain privacy behaviors might be important: “If the why of privacy is shared I think we as young people can become more empowered and invested in taking actions to protect ourselves.”.

Education based on ‘fear tactics’ is less likely to be popular amongst young people: “[Scare tactics] are the wrong way to go about it. You are scaring youth to not share things they should be sharing, great things, or [scaring them to] stop using the Internet or social networks altogether. The best way to go about it is teaching about settings, not trying to scare them too much but teaching them good things that we can improve.”

Cutting through myths about youth and privacy is complicated by the ambiguity of the term. Threats to privacy can be many and varied, and different people may value particular aspects of privacy differently: some willing to trade their personal data for services from Internet companies, others seeing this as a threat to privacy. Young people’s views on privacy in particular situations, such as whether Amazon’s personalised recommendations are a positive or negative thing, are as diverse as those of the adult population.

Myth: The Internet is the ‘great equalizer’ (Matthew Jackman)

On the one hand, the Internet is a place where anyone could start a business, or choose to express themselves. On the other hand, “if you want ask someone where they would find videos they would clearly say YouTube…We find a monopoly website which control whole sectors.”

Just because the Internet presents great possibilities for access to information that doesn’t mean that everyone can access and make the most of it.

“…the Internet has potential to bring equality but with so many barriers with access, be it disability or affordability and censorship …[in practice it doesn't]“.

However, we should be careful about assuming that disabled people, for example, are not only at all. One delegate reminded the workshop that young disabled people often rely on the Internet as a first port of call for information and resources, confounding the common assumption that they are not online. Projects and policies need to address barriers to the the realization of the equalizing potential of the Internet.

Myth: All young Nigerians as cybercriminals (‘Gbenga Sesan)

“I’m sure everyone here has probably, not even probably, has, received an e-mail from somebody who claims to be a Nigerian prince.”

The stereotyping of a whole nation can have profound consequences on the young people who live there. Young Nigerians are locked out of e-commerce opportunities as services like PayPal block the Nigerian market. Young Nigerians seeking to participate in online discussions can find their e-mails deleted by spam filters. And “this myth prevents the world from knowing what exactly is going on with young Nigerians on the Internet”, such as the 2011 mobile-phone based election monitoring application development by young Nigerians, or recent investment into Nigerian online businesses.

The association in popular conciousness of Nigeria with cybercrime is a modern stereotype: but a particularly harmful one to youth and one that needs to be challenged.

Myth: Social media is addictive (Dan Skipper)

Claims about youth ‘Internet addiction’ or ‘addiction’ to social media are common in policy debates, and at the Internet Governance Forum: often leading to polarised arguments. Although a small number of people may exhibit “compulsively driven behaviour with negative consequences” in relation to the social media, and many young people prefer not to be without access to social media for long periods, general claims about youth Internet addiction are based more in rhetoric and myth than in evidence; and a focus on ‘addiction’ can divert a focus on important issues such as whether people are enjoying a great enough diversity of online experiences.

“I think social media is not addictive, just a luxury people enjoy using so you could in a way argue anything is addictive if you are saying social media is addictive. If you play a sport and you love playing and you play it every chance you get, same with being on social media.  If you enjoy social media, you use it as much as you can. I don’t think you can say it is an addiction.”

Myth: Young People are all creating their own online content (Gitte Stald)

It is commonly claimed that the Internet allows young people to become ‘content creators’, yet The EU Kids Online Research has found that very few young people are actually creating their own content online. “What the majority do is very mundane, and not creative.”

This can be seen as a missed opportunity both because young people are not exploring creative skills, and because it is recognised that there is a lack of good quality content for young people online – and peer-created content could help address this.

Myth: The digital is separate from the real world (Naveed-ul-haq)

Discussions of ‘cyberspace’, or ‘the virtual world’ or even ‘spending time online’ often have an implicit assumption that the digital world is separate from the real world. But for many young people (and adults) it is more accurate the say that the digital world is simply an integral part of the real world for many people.

“The most important thing that we do in our real world is communicate. How do we communicate with others and with people around us and talk about digital world? There are five billion mobile users: so we cannot say that digital world is separate than real world.”

However, policy makers, parents and teachers often frame discussions with an artificial divide between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ which doesn’t reflect the reality of young people’s lives, increasingly including the reality in developing world contexts too, where mobile phones mean everyone is carrying a connection to the digital world around with them.

Taking forward discussions

Delegate noted that simply presenting the myths challenged in the workshop would be a useful input to future IGF debates: allowing workshops planned in future to avoid framing debates around myths, and to ask better questions. Particular themes included

The importance of evidence

The session highlighted that two forms of evidence are vitally important. Firstly, high quality statistical evidence (particularly from studies using shared methods to promote International comparison) helping us to understand the prevalence of a wide range of online issues – from safety issues, to freedom of expression issues – and helping us to see the local variations in issues of importance at any particular time. We need evidence to help both highlight difference between contexts as well as commonality. Secondly, we need evidence and input from a diverse range of stakeholders, including diverse groups of children, young people and young adults – able to offer insights into the varied online experiences and opinions of youth.

The diversity of youth experience

The workshop discussions demonstrated that challenging myths and generalisations requires us to engage with a diversity of views and approaches to address key Internet issues. We were reminded that “we’ll not have one answer that fits all… what might work in developed countries might not work in developing countries”, and a debate between young panelists and delegates highlighted the range of different views held on whether censorship, web blocking and filtering was every appropriate.

A shared responsibility

One delegate issued a challenge to young people to think about how they can work to dispel myths about youth and the Internet, and another mentioned the possibility of using social media to challenge myths. The importance of challenging myths in local and regional debates was also raised.

Next steps

The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (www.ycig.org) will continue to develop resources based on the workshop transcript and report.

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2011 YCIG Statement

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Tim

As in 2010, the Youth Coalition made use of an etherpad document to collaboratively draft a statement to share in the closing plenary of this years IGF. The statement, which was unfortunately not read in full due to time constraints, is below:

2011 YCIG Statement, Nairobi Kenya

The Dynamic Youth Coalition on Internet Governance was founded in 2009 at the Sharm El Sheik IGF. This year, members of the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance have been involved across the Internet Governance Forum, in the preparatory process, organising a number of workshops, and participating actively in many more.
For this IGF we hosted a session ‘Challenging Myths about Young People and the Internet’, in which we sought to contribute to a deeper dialogue when claims about youth are used in Internet Governance Debates. Our panelists addressed myths such as the view that “Young people are either digital natives, or are digitally naïve”, and challenged claims about “Internet Addiction” and the view that ”young people don’t care about privacy”. The real picture is much more complex: and we need to work together to have a naunced debate about youth that balances provision, protection and participation rights. We will produce a workshop report that we hope you can use in future workshop planning and facilitation – to make sure we together avoid generalisations about youth and supporting us to together build evidence-based responses that promote online creativity, safe digital lives, and freedom of expression and access to information and education.
The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance exists to network and support younger participants to speak up and to collaborate in all areas of Internet Governance. We believe youth have a wide range of contributions to make to IG debates on all topics. The issues on IG we are  discussing in five years could show up in the lives of the youth already  today, and by getting more young people along, we can be prepared. And since there are many young people willing to help the internet  community, let us not waste this resource.
In our coalition meeting yesterday we reviewed the current state of youth participation in Internet governance both locally and globally. Children, young people and young adults are not a homogenous group: they come from civil society, government and the private sector, and from many countries and cultures. There is not one ‘youth’ voice, but we believe younger voices should be represented in all workshops and panels. Whilst many workshops have made progress in youth presence this year – there is a long way to go before we can say the concerns, ideas and insights of the net-generation are fully included in IGF dialogue. And we are disappointed that a number of panels, including those specifically focused on youth issues, did not invite young panelists. We offer our support to you in helping you contact a wide network of youth to help find panelists and participants for future workshops on all themes, and we invite you to get in touch whenever this can be of help to you.
To continue to develop youth involvement in IGF we need to focus on capacity building; addressing structural barriers to youth engagement; and to link youth inclusion to wider issues of inclusive IGF participation.
Language barriers are common challenge for youth’s engagement in international conferences, and although we have been impressed by how many members of YCIG have been communicating with other young people back home throughTwitter, IRC, email, Skype and other tools in their own languages, representing their colleagues when they spoke up in English in sessions, we encourage IGF to push towards greater multi-lingualism in debates.
We note also that youth often lack resources to engage in IG debates, both finances to travel, and access to support to engage with IG issues all year round. We encourage donors to support youth participation in IGF in sustainable ways.
Youth have already been active capacity building for IG, organising regional youth IGF events, and New Media Summer Schools linked to EuroDig. However, the lack of promotion for IG and internet-related issues and fora still means many young people who would be able to passionately engage, are simply missing the opportunity because of lack of awareness. The development of regional IGF meetings offer a great chance for local youth to become aware of and get involved in Internet Governance, and we encourage regional IGF meetings to use these as an opportunity for capacity building that will support children, young people and young adults to play an active role in Internet Governance. E-Participation also offers real potential for improving youth engagement in IG issues, and we hope more youth-led and youth-focussed hubs can be in place for IGF2012.
We already started planning several local IG-related events for both this and the coming year, in Africa and elsewhere. If anyone here shares this will of organising and helping others get their young, useful voice heard, please do not hesitate to contact us, for example through our website and mailing list available at ycig.org.
Recurring issues in participation aside, there has been some great progress in recognising youth as an important stakeholder in the IGF and the ideas of the young and the adults have clearly converged over time. For example, it has been refreshing to hear how others than specific youth representatives have suggested leaving ‘internet’ off of ‘internet bullying’, ‘cyber’ off of ‘cybercrime’ and ‘digital’ off of ‘digital citizenship’. Young people do separate the online and offline, but do not think of the Internet as some separate virtual space. The Internet is, slowly but surely, becoming a core part of the real world for all adults as well. On this basis, lets collaborate to make the net, and our world, a better place.
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YCIG Charter

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Tim

STATUS
Youth Coalition on Internet Governance
PREAMBLE:
The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance was officially launched during the 4th Internet Governance Forum held from the 15th to the 18 November 2009 in Maritim Jolie Conference Center in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

PART I: GENERAL PROVISIONS 
CHAPTER I: ESTABLISHMENT, NAME, DURATION

 

Article 1: Establishment and Structure

 

The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (YCIG) was established between youth activists and youth organizations from civil society, government and private sector, which share interests on youth issues and internet governance.

 

The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance shall have an Steering Committee formed by three elected members for the following roles: Chair and Vice-Chair. Only individual members under 30 years old and limited number of representatives of youth organizations can be elected. Elected members will have a one-year term mandate with limitation of two terms.
The Steering Committee will be responsible for coordinating the activities and representing the group. In order to promote accountability and transparence, all documents, minutes from Steering Committe meetings and decisions will be published at the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance website.

 

Article 2: Duration and location

The Dynamic Youth Coalition is established for an unlimited period. The communication between members will be established, whenever possible, in face-to-face meetings or, more frequently, through online channels, such as mailing list, emails and so on. Those channels will be selected through a rough consensus between coalition members.

 
PART II: VISION, PURPOSE VALUES, PRINCIPLES, OBJECTIVES:

 

CHAPTER II: Vision, principles and values


Article 3: Vision

The Internet plays an important role in the lives of children, young people and young adults   and will become even more important in the future. Youth  are the largest group of internet users in most countries with up to 95% of young people of under 25′s online in many countries  using the internet. This symbolizes how youth is going digital. Young people are using the Internet for their education, work life, social communication or private information. Far too often the local, national and international decision making and governance structure that impact on the Internet exclude young people from discussion and decision making. As the largest user group, young people need to get strongly involved in the process of Internet Governance. This involvement should not be limited to typical youth related issues like literacy or protection the young to harmful online content. The active involvement and leadership of young people should go beyond that, since the Internet is first and foremost a world of the young. The active involvement and leadership of young people should go beyond that, since young people are equal partners in the Internet community, and in many cases, the group driving forward, and most affected by, changes in the world of the Internet   Youth have  a very valuable contribution to make to discussions, debates and decision making regarding internet governance and have therefore  to be actively involved in all policy- and decisionmaking. 
Young people need to be lobbyist for a free internet in an open society. We want to be actively involved in discussions about privacy, social media governance, future of intellectual property but also in literacy or online safety – and we ourselves will do our very best to reach that goal. The involvement of young people must not genuine, not tokenistic. Opportunities for the insights, experiences and views of young people to heard must be provided, as must opportunities for young people to be involved, on an equal basis, in dialogue and decision making : as young people, we demand meaningful youth participation in all Internet governance related discussions.  , we want to play a strong role in the discussions with other relevant stakeholders.

These are just some of the issues we want to discuss. We want to take an active part and cooperate with other dynamic coalitions and support the IGF Secretariat to get more young people involved in the process on Internet Governance. We also want to share ideas and knowledge from our special regional perspectives. We want to build a strong youth coalition on Internet Governance and attract new youth organizations, institutions and interested young people to contribute to the IGF too.

 

Article 4: Principles and Values
The Principles and Values underlying the activities of the Dynamic Youth Coalition are: 

  • Defending and promoting the interests of young people in the debate on internet governance
  • Being open to all youth-friendly interested parties
  • Being horizontal in its discussions and in its decision-making process. All members will be able to express their opinions and all opinions will be equally taken into account.
  • Being transparent and accountable discussions and actions implemented.
  • Respecting the fundamental rights of all childrens and young people to have their voices heard in decisions that affect them
  • Challenging systematic discrimination that intentionally, or intentionally excludes young people from meaningful dialogue and decision making about Internet governance.
  • Seeking to promote the inclusion of all young people regardless or age, ability, race or gender

 

CHAPTER III: OBJECTIVES

 

Article 5: Global objective

 

The Dynamic Youth Coalition aims to achieve effective and meaningful involvement of youth, youth empowerment and better coordination between youth initiatives in all internet governance discussions.

 

The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance  want to ensure that diverse voices, and shared concerns, of young people on emerging and ongoing issues of Internet governance are addressed.   The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance enhances youth participation and engagement in the internet governance debates in a systematic and sustainable way. The coalition is planning at compiling youth opinions and views before every IGF and will try to reach consensus on the main lobby messages regarding youth participation and empowerment in internet governance issues.   It also aims at securing a stable and continuous forum for the exchange of views prior and post IGF events. The coalition will ensure that youth views are expressed and conveyed as appropriate in plenaries and workshops. Moreover, the coalition aims at maximizing young       people?s knowledge and their mobilization in preparation for IGFs through physical or remote participation.


Article 6: Specific Objectives

The Youth Coalition on Internet Governance has set itself specific objectives:
  • Structuring its network and the capacity of its members;
  • Establish a reliable communication;
  • Establish effective mechanisms for information flow;
  • Mobilizing all stakeholders and public opinion on issues concerning youth interests
  • Defend youth interests with input from coalition members
  • Strengthening capacity building of young people pre and post IGFs
  • To encourage young people to take part in the Internet Governance processes
  • Coordinating youth initiatives at IGFs, e.g. organizing workshops, ensuring visibility of young people, etc.
  • To advocate for better youth representation in all IGF panels and representing youth issues.
  • To encourage IGF to adopt a range of more inclusive forms of dialogue and meeting formats that enable the full participation of youth in discussions
  • To offer support, advice and guidance to other dynamic coalitions and acts in the IGF family who wish to better engage with young people, or to understand the role of young people as those affected by, and those able to impact upon, their areas of focus.
  • Elaboration of documents, studies, researches, reports etc all related to analyse and background youth participation

 

CHAPTER IV: ACTION

Article 7: Action

 

Activities of the Dynamic Youth Coalition will include, but not be limited to advocacy for youth participation and youth leadership at IGFs, representing youth perspectives in IGF workshops and panels, participating actively in discussions and debates on youth issues and providing recommendations to stakeholders in the field of internet governance and the organizers of the IGF regarding the involvement of young people.

 

 

PART III: STATUS, RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF MEMBERS
CHAPTER V: Membership and Eligibility
Article 8: Membership
The coalition membership is open to all individuals and organizations from all stakeholders which share interest on youth issues, youth participation and youth leadership in the context of Internet Governance.
Article 9: Eligibility
The network has two categories of membership: Individual members and organizations.

Individual members may be within age bracket defining youth  (TBD) or associate when they fall outside the core age bracket and are willing to their support to work of the coalition.

Organizations members should having interests on youth issues.

 



PART IV: CHARTER MODIFICATIONS


Article 10: Modification process

The Charter modifications can be suggested by any interested member to the Steering Committee. The SC members will deliberate for accepting the suggestion according the relevance for the Charter. If accepted, the SC Chair shall start a discussion period among  all members for deliberations. The member’s approval must be through consensus.



Individual members:

 

 

1. Abdallah Diwan, Egypt

2. Amr El Sadr, Egypt
3. Mar?lia Maciel, Brazil
4. Mohammed Fathy, Egypt
5. Pascal Bekono, Cameroon
6. Rafik Dammak, Tunisia
7. Agnieszka Wrzesie?, Poland

8. Malte Spitz, Germany

9. Wieke Vink, Holland

10. Raquel Gatto, Brazil

11. Andres Piazza

12. Wojciech Gryc

 

 

Organizations supporting the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance

 

Childnet International UK

Diplo Foundation

Electronic Frontrier Finland

Elon University

Imagining the Internet

Reach Out to Asia (Qatar Foundation)

Egyptian Ministy of Communications & Information Technology

Egypt ICT Trust Fund

Practical Participation

Netmission

 

 

     Website

    www.ycig.org

     Mailing list

http://groups.google.com/group/ycig


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Discussion paper: Challenging myths about young people and the Internet #92

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Tim

Join this Thursday’s IGF Workshop on Challenging Myths about young people and the Internet in person, or via Remote Participation. 14.30 – 16.00 – 29th September 2011 – Room 11.

Read on for a workshop outline and discussion paper: and listen out in other IGF sessions for myths that need to be addressed to make for a better Internet Governance dialogue.

Workshop outline: Challenging myths about young people and the Internet

This workshop explores common claims about the impact of the Internet on children and young people & invites participants to explore the evidence base for each. It will identify where policy initiatives are based on misconceptions about young people and the Internet; and will look at areas where current evidence is lacking.

The workshop will draw upon a discussion paper outlining ‘myths’ that young participants in past IGFs, and partner organisations, have identified. Invited panelists will start discussion, but considerable time will be given to facilitated dialogue between workshop participants. The workshop will support evidence based policy making by sharing learning from studies of young people’s contact with the Internet.

Myths to be addressed with be identified through consultation with workshop stakeholders upon workshop acceptance, but will take as a starting point those put forward by danah boyd: Myths #1: The digital is separate from the “real” world; #2: Social media makes kids deceptive; #3: Social media is addictive; #4: Kids don’t care about privacy; #5: The Internet is a dangerous, dangerous place; #6: There’s nothing educational about social media; #7: Kids are digital natives; and #8: The Internet is the great equalizer. boyd: Favorite myth-making news articles? September 11th 2010

Agenda

Each speaker will introduce a myth or issue around youth and the Internet for five minutes, with time for brief question answers, before we move to an open discussion around the questions:

  • How do myths about young people and the Internet affect Internet Governance?
  • How can be address myths in a constructive manor?
  • What are the respective roles of young people and adults at IGF in addressing common myths?

Draft Speaking order

  • Introduction: addressing myths in Internet governance (Tim Davies
  • Keylle Coleman – Young People and Privacy
  • Gitte Stald – Myths and Evidence from EU Kids Online
  • Gbenga Sesan – The myth that most young Nigerians are cybercriminals
  • Childnet YouthIGF Delegates (Alannah Travers, Connor Dalby, Dan Skipper, Matthew Jackman) – Myths identified in the Youth IGF Project
  • Sheba Mohammid
  • Naveed-ul-Haq (Remote panelist)

Discussion Paper

Claims about children and young people (hereafter ‘youth’ or ‘young people’) are central to many Internet Governance discussions. However, many of the claims made about youth and the Internet are based on myth and misperception rather than on reality.

Myths come in a variety of forms. Some are compelling, but mistaken claims: intuitively plausible, but not backed by evidence and research. Others are based on stereotypes or distorted media coverage given to issues: when media outlets focus on sensational and problem issues they frequently leave a very biased impression of the true magnitude of particular issues in the public consciousness. Other myths are willfully propagated by those with particular agendas, seeking to secure support for their cause by making exaggerated claims. Identifying common myths, and ensuring they are critically addressed in Internet governance debates is vital to developing effective policy that balances the mutually reinforcing rights of children and young people: to provision of services, education and opportunities; to freedom to participate and engage in society; and to protection from abuse. It is also important to avoid claims about young people being used to justify restrictions on Internet freedom, or to ground policies that impoverish the Internet for all by excluding the voices of children and young people from the online public sphere.

This workshop will address a number of myths identified by workshop presenters and participants, and this paper does not pre-empt the exact myths to be explored. We can, however, remark on some common myths, and the way they impact the Internet governance debate.

Social media researcher danah boyd has suggested eight key myths based on analysis of US media reports about young people and the Internet:

    • #1: The digital is separate from the “real” world;
    • #2: Social media makes kids deceptive;
    • #3: Social media is addictive;
    • #4: Kids don’t care about privacy;
    • #5: The Internet is a dangerous, dangerous place;
    • #6: There’s nothing educational about social media;
    • #7: Kids are digital natives; and
    • #8: The Internet is the great equalizer.

These are all views that have been expressed as ‘true’ in past IGF workshops, and some have even formed the basis for workshops and discussions. When phrases like “social networking addiction” are used uncritically, or the claim is made and accepted in discussions that all time spent by young people on social networks is wasted, ignoring the wealth of educational and career opportunities that many young people (and adults) gain through these spaces, discussions are unable to work towards constructive proposals based on evidence and effective understanding of young people’s online experiences.

A Youth Roundtable discussion at IGF-USA in July 2011 explored boyd’s myths. Their discussions highlighted the importance of challenging these myths, but doing so in a way that is constructive rather than oppositional. They are not claims to be rejected out-of-hand, but proponents of these claims need to be encouraged to engage in closer examination of the subtleties of how young people experience the digital world. For example, the claim that “Kids don’t care about privacy” can lead to projects being designed that assume they need to instruct young people to care about their privacy, and these often focus on finding campaign messages to ‘tell’ young people how to behave online. However, IGF-USA roundtable participants argued that “young people [do] value privacy, but have generally individual views concerning what content is private or deserving of privacy”. Policy responses that start from the assumption that young people do value their privacy are likely to be very different: they need to understand why different generations make different assumptions about what should or shouldn’t be shared publicly, and to identify existing youth privacy practices to build upon.The evidence suggests that instead of saying ‘Kids don’t care about privacy’, we should say ‘Kids care about privacy, but have some different ideas about what that means in practice’.

A number of other myths that members of the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance have raised concerns about are claims about the general capacities of young people. As one coalition member outlined:

“…a myth that exists around young people’s sexual and reproductive rights and the net is that people assume young people are too young to begin exploring this aspect of their lives. So, they are told to not access sites, or sites are blocked (in some countries there is almost no access to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, questioning, intersex or asexual (LGBTQIA) sites or content; and general access to information on sex and sexuality is frequently restricted), instead of spaces being created where young people can safely discuss elements of sexual and reproductive life. There is an assumption that to “protect” young people you must hide content from them, instead of enabling them to access it in a way that is healthy and leads to their individual growth.”

Claims that the only way to keep young people save online is through restrictions lack a clear evidence base, and frequently mask either ideological views about the place of young people in society, or unbalanced agendas that do not attempt to balance the participation, protection and provision rights of young people.

Young people have also expressed concern about how certain stereotypes about Internet use is certain countries impacts upon young people. For example, the myth that “Most young Nigerians are cybercriminals”. These myths affect specific youth populations, and whilst perhaps less prevalent in distorting IGF discussions, lead to significant negative consequences for the young people affected by them, who might find their access to opportunities limited. This workshop will explore what role IGF stakeholders have in challenging these myths.

We note that myths come from both Internet ‘pessimist’ and Internet ‘optimists’, and some can be propagated by young people themselves. The idea that all young people are digital natives, or that the Internet is a great equalizer, effortlessly cutting across social and economic boundaries, can also lead to bad policy – when the need that many young people have to education and support to make the most of the opportunities the Internet provides ends up being ignored.

A number of the myths this paper briefly explores, and that the workshop will discuss, are intentionally controversial. However, our aim is for the workshop to make a constructive contribution to Internet Governance debates, strengthening shared understanding about the subtleties of young people’s experience of the Internet, and identifying areas where IGF stakeholders could be more active challenging widely held myths in other arenas (e.g. domestic politics, public debate etc.).

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YCIG at IGF Nairobi

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Tim

The 2011 Internet Governance Forum is taking place over the coming week in Nairobi, Kenya.

You can find details of all the sessions on the IGF Aggregator, or the official IGF Website, and many sessions this year have youth involvement.

Dynamic Coalition Workshop

The main workshop of the Youth Coalition is taking place on Thursday between 11am and 12.30pm. The YCIG is open to all children, young people and young adults (and other supporters of youth involvement in Internet governance) and provides an open space for the co-ordination of activities both around the participation of young people in Internet Governance processes, and substantive issues young people want to bring into Internet Governance debates.

Draft agenda

1- Introduction of youth coalition membership
2- Summary of 2010-2011 activities: evaluation and assessment
3- Strategic planning for 2012: action plan
4- Statement for IGF main session

Whether this is your first IGF, or you have been along to many meetings before, you are very welcome to take part in this coalition meeting. Coalition membership is currently very informal, and based on the mailing list linked at http://www.ycig.org.

Other workshops

The following workshops focus upon youth issues: however, YCIG members will be participating throughout the IGF programme.

Youth presence at IGF

There are many different youth groups present at IGF. We invite all children, young people and young adults groups (and individuals) involved in Internet Governance to join YCIG and to let us know about their activities at IGF so they can be featured here.

Who is here:


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New Media Summer School at EuroDig

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Tim

Members of the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance and others will be meeting in Belgrade from tomorrow for a New Media Summer School ahead of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance.

You can follow them online through their website, blogging and tweets. Visit http://newmediasummerschool.eu/ to find out more.

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F3 Article – Young People and Social Networks: Outline

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Tim

What do policy makers need to know about how young people are engaging with social network sites across the world? That was the outline brief for a recent article I wrote for UNICRI’s Freedom from Fear magazine special issue on Youth.

You can read the article (which includes mention of the YCIG) over on the Freedom From Fear website here.

The issue also includes a number of other articles touching upon digital dimensions of youth, though perhaps some are not so hot on myth-busting on seeking to find a balanced assessment of young people’s online engagement.

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Youth Policy Watch #17: IGF – The Time for Youth is now!

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Nadine

The IGF Vilnius was an extraordinary experience where i had the great pleasure to take part as a Youth representative sent by the European Youth Forum, supported by the Council of Europe.

After the event, i had the pleasure to contribute to an edition of Youth Policy Watch which is issued weekly by the European Youth Forum. It was a challenge to bring the message down to 300 words, yet, i managed and with the kind support of a native speaker the article received a beautiful language upgrade :-)

Enjoy reading!

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CALL OF THE YOUTH COALITION ON INTERNET GOVERNANCE

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Malte

We appreciate the Internet as a space where young people find opportunities for positive development, gain access to knowledge, entertainment and learning, participate in political and social discussions and exercise their fundamental rights such as freedom of association and of speech. We recognise that not all youth have access to the opportunities the Internet provides, and that some with access encounter negative experiences through online spaces. This highlights the need for sustained action to promote effective access to the Internet for all youth, and, alongside this, to ensure youth have access to the skills and support needed to get the most from online opportunities.  We, as young people and young adults from all over the world, urge the UN to give a new five year term for the Internet Governance Forum. It provides unique opportunity to share ideas and to collaborate on action in a multi-stakeholder approach – working towards a better Internet, and an Internet for all.

We look forward to an increased diversity of participation in the Internet Governance Forum, with young participants from wider-ranging regional backgrounds actively taking part in ongoing discussions. While many more children, young people and young adults have been attending IGFs, there is still work to be done before youth voices are invited and represented in all sessions, and before the full potential of youth engagement in IGF dialogue is being realised. We continue to urge the IGF to enhance youth participation at all levels with the following in mind:

Firstly, young people have a unique experience of the net, often as early adopters of new technologies. Hence, we have first hand experience, and key information, knowledge and ideas on what needs to be done to make the Internet a better place, for all of us.
Already, youth around the world are taking part in the process of Internet Governance in national and regional levels. For example, the YouthIGF project in the UK and the youth IGF camp in Hong Kong have contributed key insights and action points on the issues of censorship, privacy and the digital divide.

Their statements, statements from young people at EuroDig 2010, and from the Youth Dynamic Coalition meeting at Sharm El Sheik, which we encourage you to read about at http://www.ycig.org/index.php/statements/, contain considerable depth, which has been lacking from dialogues where youth voices are absent or under-represented, or where adults have not taken the time to listen.
Secondly, youth reinforce the multi-stakeholder approach of the IGF by bringing in new ideas and skills. In fact, in many cases young people and young adults, as students, entrepreneurs or civil society actors are the experts on technical and policy issues. We can help improve the IGF. After all, we are the decision makers and entrepreneurs of the future, not just in the future. We are citizens of the net today.

Thirdly, we bring energy and skills to resolve core Internet governance challenges. We are more than willing to collaborate for a greater diversity of voices to be involved. Youth need to be seen as stakeholders and as an asset, not as a problem.

We believe that the Internet Governance dialogue is made richer by focusing on the opportunities the Internet presents for the youth and addressing the times when they are not realized, rather than using fear-based arguments to restrict Internet freedoms. It is better to focus on fighting ignorance and building digital literacy than applying ‘safety’ strategies based on restriction.

We have established a coalition not to compete with, or replace many youth groups who have come to play a role in the regional and International IGF process over recent years. Instead, we want to bring together the messages from many different groups, and to develop opportunities for youth collaboration on Internet Governance, both within the IGF, and across many international multi-stakeholder youth fora. There is not a single voice of youth, but there are many important youth perspectives on the Internet Governance debate.

Let us not waste time talking about the youth but let the youth talk as rightful stakeholders in the Internet space. We could all benefit from the knowledge that the youth has. All youth, children, young people and young adults, from all genders, backgrounds and cultures should already be discussing the Internet, instead of stakeholders only discussing the need for their participation.
In this UN international year of youth, we urge again the members of the United Nations to give young people the opportunity to participate and get actively involved in the process on Internet Governance. We call for a new five year term of the Internet Governance Forum building on the existing forward-thinking model of multi-stakeholder participation and discussion. We believe any changes to the IGF structure that make effective youth participation more difficult would be a backwards step. The Internet is the medium of the future all over the world. Let’s pursue this transparent discussion with all stakeholders to find the right answers for the challenges we face on the Internet and to explore together the opportunities for our democracies, human-rights and social and economic development.

October 2010, Youth Coalition on Internet Governance http://www.ycig.org/

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Get involved: youth voice in IGF consultations

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Tim

There are a number of opportunities coming up for members of the YCIG to input into IGF and UN decision making processes, either individually, or by collaboratively drafting statements from the Coalition.

This post will keep track of upcoming opportunities over the next few months.

  • MAG Questionnaire
    The Multi-stakeholder advisory group takes a lead in organising much of IGF. We have discussed in the past the need to have youth representation in this group, and so there is an opportunity here to make individual or group submissions to this effect.

    See http://intgovforum.org/cms/the-preparatory-process/510 for the questions to be answered.

    Deadline: 24th October
    Collaborative Notepad: http://piratepad.net/ycig-mag

  • Letter to the UN General Assembly on future of IGF
    A text, based on our IGF10 Statement, that we can seek to circulate via our UN Youth delegates.

    Deadline: ?
    Collaborative Notepad: http://piratepad.net/igf10-ga
  • Enhanced Cooperation on International Public Policy Issues Pertaining to the Internet
    A submission would be valuable from the YCIG relating to how there can be ‘enhanced cooperation’ between governments and other actors with respect to Internet Governance – focussing on the involvement of young people. Deadline: 15th November 2010.
    Collaborative Notepad: http://piratepad.net/ycig-enhancedcoop

  • Open Consultation Session
    Taking place on the 22nd November in Geneva. If you might be taking part let the YCIG mailing list know so we can work out if we should prepare anything.

    We hope some form of remote participation in this meeting will also be possible.

You don’t need to be an IGF expert or to have loads of time free to get involved in creating these statements: all YCIG mailing list members are invited to take part.

With 5 minutes: you could choose one of the collaborative notepads above, read the text and use the comments box to leave any questions you have about areas where you don’t think the text is very clear and easy to read.

With 10 minutes: you could spend time researching how one of the institutions we need to talk to works and add some notes into the collaborative document (e.g. What is the MAG? How would you explain it to someone who hasn’t come across it before? What can you find out online about it?)

With 20 minutes: you could spend time redrafting one of the statements and making sure it represents the views of young people from your area of the world.

With an hour: you could take on a leadership role as co-ordinator of one of these statements – encouraging people to contribute and making sure it is edited and proof read before it is submitted.

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