by Maximilian

As young people today in the 21st century, we are faced with a mix of online issues ranging from cyberbullying to
data protection and privacy violations. Addictive games, apps and platforms raise concerns for our mental health and wellbeing.

We face online issues because more often than not our voices aren’t respected, aren’t heard, aren’t considered — even though we are the youth who account for one-third of technology users today.

The Big Ambition found that only 54% of children said they felt safe both online. This figure is ludicrous. If slightly over half the adult population felt safe walking down the street, something would be done to increase their safety and wellbeing. For children and young people this is even more necessary – we need to not only feel safe, but we truly
need to be safe online.

It often feels like our parents and teachers do not understand social media. The key to understanding what is happening online is media literacy. Media literacy is crucial — for adults, children and young people — to guide online users to understand the tools at our disposal, including online support systems, reporting features or other user safety-focused tools.

Many political discussions, media reports and legislative opinions about online safety today often exclude the people most affected by it – children and young people. Young people are entirely capable of helping adult stakeholders pinpoint the issues and even solutions, but first we need to be able to reclaim our own digital rights.