That was the clear message from young people who shared their experiences at the Digital Youth Work conference in Edinburgh last week. Find out more…
That was the clear message from young people who shared their experiences at the Digital Youth Work conference in Edinburgh last week.
The young people were participating in an event which brought together youth workers, academics, policy-makers, government, regulators and people from the technology sector.
The overall purpose was to empower youth workers to support young people in their online lives and over 130 people came together to part in a busy event on Safer Internet Day.
Ben MacPherson, Minister for Higher and Further Education, launched the event, affirming the important role that youth work plays in helping young people to thrive in an increasing digitised environment. He praised the launch of the “valuable” new AI Toolkit, highlighting how pivotal youth workers are to empowering young people to make safe online choices.
“It is fitting that today is the launch of a new AI Youth Work Toolkit, this is a resource that will make a real difference, helping young people to think critically and apply their learning to their online lives. Youth workers are in a really important place to empower young people to make safe choices online. You are pivotal to our collective work around cyber resilience…your support for young people is irreplaceable. You change lives for the better, and we are here to support you.”
The young people at the conference were involved in developing Our Futures and AI: A youth work toolkit. Ryan McKay, youth worker at The Citadel in Leith said, “I am so proud of our amazing young people for getting on stage and running a workshop showcasing the creative activities we’ve used together to explore AI. This is youth voice in action, not just talking about AI!”
AI was the theme for Safer Internet Day this year, emphasising the connection between understanding this rapidly growing aspect of technology and concerns about safety and security online. Youth work has an The conference provided an opportunity to understand further the important role to play in supporting young people around their use of mobile phones and social media and explore how this might influence the wider debate on access to social media.
Where is Digital Youth Work?
With a keynote input from Dr Alicja Pawluczuk and Cristina Bacalso, we were able to take a broader look at digital youth work in relation to the digital inclusion agenda.
They introduced a new report, “Where is Digital Youth Work?” looking at where digital youth work sits—or doesn’t sit—in the UK’s digital inclusion policy landscape. They say, “We carried out this study because practitioners kept telling us the same thing: policy makers talk about getting young people online, about digital skills for employment, about future-ready workforces. What they rarely talk about is young people’s right to participate as citizens in digital society, or the youth clubs and community organisations where young people actually learn to use digital tools for voice, for organising, for democratic engagement—not just for CVs.”
Building our networks
While the main focus for the event is to support youth workers in Scotland, wee were delighted to have participants from Essex, Devon, Cornwall, Ireland, Berlin, Brussels and the Netherlands. One delegate commented, “It was fantastic to meet everyone, we had many great conversations, the activities were loads of fun, and I’ve left today feeling inspired to make our educational/research activities about AI for young people more exciting and fun.”
The event was made possible by generous support from the Include Plus Network, Hearth of Midlothian FC – Innovation Centre and Scottish Government.