The Nordic Youth IGF initiative

1. The Nordic Youth IGF initiative Involving youths in the dialogue on the governance and future of the Internet International conference on The Effects of Internet on Children and Young People, Budapest 26th of September 2012 Alex Amneus, Swedish Media Council Co-funded by the European Commission

2. Involving young people Why is involving youth important? What have we done in this project? What have we learnt? What are the future challenges?

3. Why this is important • The use of Internet by young people – a key to the future shape of Internet • The commitment and interest of young people regarding internet governance • The rights of young people to express their views and be heard • The fruitfulness of IGF issues when involving youths in discussing Internet issues

4. What have we done - the NYIGF Nordic Youth Internet Governance Forum Based on the International IGF issues Aimed at EuroDIG and IGF conferences 2012 Builds on experiences from national Youth IGF:s and Safer Internet Centre youth panels Youth recommendations documented and disseminated by research institution

5. Nordic Youth Delegation

6. Objectives and ambitions • Involving young people in discussions about internet governance and safer internet • Creating meetings between young people and policy makers/stakeholders • Raising the issue of youth participation in Internet governance forums • Develop the discussion on Safer Internet issues and digital cultural expressions

7. Formal partners of the NYIGF • The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth & Media, within Nordicom (Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research)at Gothenburg University • Nordic public media agencies (SIC:s): • Swedish Media Council (founder and coordinator) • Danish Media Council for Children and Young People • Norwegian Media Authority • National Parent´s Association in Iceland • Finnish Mannerheim League

8. Youth participation Nat. youth panels in the five Nordic countries (6 youths age 14-17 per country) Online activities before, during and after the NYIGF conference Nordic Youth IGF - Sthlm June 12-13(26 panellists from 5 countries) Nordic Youth Delegation at international events during 2012

9. What have we learnt • Young people are eager to talk about the internet and its future! • Time and preparations arecrucial to enable meaningful youth participation • Clear and concise objectives allow deepened workshop discussions • Access to policy making arenas depends on good relations with key stakeholders

10. Future challenges • Incorporate youth organizations more actively in the safer internet discussions • Building on the good existing initiatives – to cooperate and develop this further • The next step: to integrate youth participation into ordinary structures of IGF arenas etc.

11. Swedish Media Council MEDIA LITERACY Overall task: to empower children and adolescents as competent media users and protect them from harmful media influence. Methods: to monitor the media development and to disseminate information and provide guidance about the media situation of children and youth. Runs the Swedish SIC since 2004, now in cooperation with BRIS (Children’s Right in Society) Other specific task: to classify and provide age ratings for films intended for public screening for children under the age of 15. GATHERING AND DISSEMINATION OF KNOWLEDGE SAFER INTERNET CENTRE FILM CLASSIFICATION

12. Thank you! alex.amneus@statensmedierad.se Coordinator Safer Internet Centre Sweden lena.fagerstrom@statensmedierad.se Nordic Project manager, NYIGF