A Smarter Internet for Kids

Youth have until midnight-U.S. Eastern Time Friday, January 25th (8 AM GMT on Saturday) to rank your top 10 priorities.  Simply click on this link and rank 1 through 10. And do read the important note about how to vote.

VOTE HERE

Goal: Trigger authentic participation of young people in countries in several regions of the world to inform parents, decision makers, industry… and children and young people worldwide

The internet offers young people invaluable opportunities to access more data, process more information and meet more people than ever before. As their digital footprint expands, they are also open to more risks, including social exploitation in one form or another. This can be exploitation by peers, for example through bullying or the unwanted sharing of images, or online, as in grooming and radicalization  by people they interact with online. Their data, too, can easily become a commodity for marketing and other purposes. The list is long, and growing almost exponentially with the advent of new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, artificial reality, Internet of Toys and Things and the challenges they encounter in the ever-more-realistic world of online gaming.

On September 19, 2018 a group of teens, affiliated with Digital Tag2, gathered in East Palo Alto, CA to talk about what they want the internet to look like.The teens were initially handed a form to write-down their top issues and concerns but they quickly abandoned that approach and, instead, just talked about their concerns.

What emerged was the impression that the internet and mobile technology was working for them. They were getting a great deal out of being online. But, as you might expect, not all was rosy. The teens had their complaints about both institutional issues and behavioral issues from fellow netizens.