YouthForYouth - The Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Youth Panel 2019

On Thursday, 21 November 2019, the Safer Internet Forum (SIF) took place in Brussels, Belgium, with a theme of "From online violence to digital respect". During this day of debates, exchanges and discussions, a plenary session was led by the young people of the BIK Youth Panel 2019.

Date 2019-10-30 Author BIK Team Section awareness, youth

In the framework of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project, each year, a BIK Youth Panel is organised prior and during SIF, encouraging a group of youth panellists – this year, 26 panellists from 19 European countries – to voice not just their personal opinions and challenges regarding safer/better internet issues, but also those of their peers whom they are representing at a European level.

In 2019, the session they held at SIF followed a "flipped consultation" format, aiming to reverse the traditional model of youth involvement in stakeholder consultations, where their voices are heard, but there is often no proper follow-up of the issues and priorities they raise. Therefore, the youth panellists organised the discussion along a set of concrete problems they identified based on their personal views and experiences of online violence.

Planning and preparation for this flipped consultation started two months before the conference, with youth panellists meeting online regularly to develop their campaign and their intervention during SIF 2019. On Wednesday, 20 November 2019, they met in Brussels to finalise their SIF 2019 session.

In line with the 2019 theme of SIF, focusing on digital respect as an antidote to online violence in its various forms, the youth panellists focused their intervention on the phenomenon of online violence, and how it is experienced by young people specifically. Along this face-to-face event, they also built an awareness campaign on social media – notably on Instagram – on the same topic, called Youth for Youth. They are currently using this platform to share their views of online violence through testimonials from young people and from themselves, and through playful quizzes and questions.

To stay up-to-date with  the BIK Youth panel 2019, be sure to keep an eye on the BIK Youth minisite and on the @BIK_youth Twitter account.

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