The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Berlin, Germany, from 25 to 29 November 2019. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> MODERATOR: Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the youth coalition on internet government session on youth participation at the IGF. Thank you all so much for joining us here today. And I am very pleased that you are able to come and join the session. I would like to start off telling you a little bit more about what the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance does. We are dynamic coalition and we represent and advocate for the youth voices at the IGF but not only here, also nationally at other forums and stakeholder environments?
Which youth should be part of the negotiations, discussions and policy making proposal participation areas.
First all, let me introduce myself, I'm Nadia Tjahja and I represent the Western Europe and Others Group for the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance. I am normally joined by members from the other regional groups who are unfortunately not able to make it today but send their best regards and we hope we have a fruitful discussion from the different regions today so we can ensure that we manage to have a full and rich discussion that crosses borders and crosser sectors.
One thing I wanted to share with you is what we have done at the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance in the last few years.
What are our activists? Your comments and thoughts and ideas and vision for the future we bring that together and create a strategy and plan and prosal not only for IGF but at other forums internationally. Many of you are part of the youth expert list. At the IGF and other forums we use the youth expert list in which young people can lead the expertise in the locations behind so we can go up to a session organizers and tell them we have youth experts in your area working on your expertises and making sure that these youth experts are part of the Pams because we should have inclusive discussions in which young people are actually presenting the ideas that they are working with.
The policies should not go about issues that we are implementing that we don't understand or have involvement in. If you are not on the list, please do make sure that you are on here. In terms of our outreach, when my mandate started in Geneva unwith of the par cities pants from NLIGF mentioned we have the IGF and they sore international and so global but we always find there a lack of local youth being involved in the processes whether or not as volunteers but not attending the different sessions. How is it possible that we are going to the beautiful places but the youth are not there. Youth should be able to travel just around the corner. In Paris we had an e-mail campaign and reached out to all universities and schools in Paris to encourage them to come to the IGF and promote the IGF sessions which are about youth and in which youth should be presenting ideas.
And this was very very good. But, the issue that we face there was in Paris it was during school weeks so young people couldn't attend because they had to attend classes and they were not able to get the opportunity to leave. And this was very unfortunate. However, during the year in Paris the group raised there needs to be more focus on girls empowerment and girls education and access for people.
So this year our strategy outreach were to sustainable development goals activities in rural and local areas and what youth -- what we do is supported applications but not in a way in which we invited people but we helped people write e-mails and helped with market research on sponsorships. We helped with research on fundraising. We found ways on how to do interview preparations in their local environments. We connected people to internet governance organizations who are also coming so they had the opportunity.
We had 34 international applications from Maldives, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Burundi and Bangladesh. But we had only one successful visa application. I'm pleased to introduce you mar Khan. He is a youth arctivity that has an organization in which he empowers widows and orphans to meet their full potential. We are happy you were able to come and overcome the different hardships to meet us here at the IGF.
The third area is fartherrer inships and promotion. Joined foreFoas and events and we also gave training and a variety of different issues in which they needed youth participants. Also, the youth we join with the IGF Secretariat in which we organize and participate with the DC session which happened yesterday in which all of the Dynamic Coalitions come together to present what we are working towards on a particular issue.
So if you haven't -- weren't able to join us yesterday, please have a look online to see how the Dynamic Coalitions are working to the because all our work as youth does fit in with the Dynamic Coalitions sessions happen.
In that regard, we can find opportunities and partnerships and collaborations that go beyond just being youth but also going into the topics and sectors. We are here to connect people. We here to ensure that we can build partnerships and ensure that you have the access to the full potential which is the IGF and other national foras. Reach out if you wanted to work on projects or move forward and I look very much forward to seeing what you did all achieve in your local environments but also internationally.
Having said all this, the Internet governance area is so much more than just young people working on particular individual issues and there are so many different for South Dakota YCIG are participating in. In Europe, YouthDIG. We have dedig. We have youth IGF and summer schools and we wanted to bring it together and look at issues that youth in these regions have been presenting and focusing on and advocating for. And therefore I would like to introduce to you the following speakers. We have two remote speakers today joining us, we have Uffa Modey from digital grass roots calling us from Africa. And Ellen Kusuma from youth IGF Indonesia and we have Marko Paloki ambassador for SEEDIG. And we have Jan Dohnal a participant of YouthDIG and Elisabeth Schauermann is the organizer of the youth IGF summit which was hosted here in Berlin last Sunday. I look very much to hear about your interventions about what were the priority key area -- keep topics and issues youth presented in your areas. I would like to look at the remote moderator to ask if we can have Uffa on the line to present her ideas starting with south Africa.
>> UFFA MODEY: Hi, can you hear me?
>> MODERATOR: Yes, we can hear you.
>> UFFA MODEY: Awesome. Good morning from Lagos Nigeria. I'm glad to be participating in the session. I hope you are having fun at IGF. I'm Uffa Modey the cofounder at and vice president of digital grass roots and I will be highlighting the issues that youth from the African region face in their participation in the IGF from my perspective as an African youth.
In the African region we have the internet technologies reach out to developments in feature where there is not much being done to ensure that the next generation of Africans are properly equipped with the knowledge required to use a healthy internet that works. African youth need to fully understand the influence of the internet. It will be really hard for us to have any real development in the sector in participation in we are not aware of the issues. We need to understand all of the issues and what are the key challenges to the IGF. The IGF issues, openness, decentralization, privacy and security and understand what the issues are and how they are affected. Many are participating in the IGF as well. It is not enough. We need more experience in the global IT ecosystem how can we contribute to open standards development at the IGF through IT resource management and advocating for numerous digital rights and human rights onHein. We need the inclusion and experience. Unless we get the experience it is going to be really hard for us to have more practical impact in the global space.
And then for avenues to improve (?) to the IGF. And that has to do a lot with understanding like I said. Unless we fully understand what these Internet governance topics are, it is hard for us to make relevant contributions. It is not enough to just say the buzz words, they all sound really well but what exactly are they? Do we really understand them and how they affect our communities locally.
And then talking about local participation. We should not only move at participating at the IGF on the global level, there a lot of work that need to be done in the local communities. Talking about national and regional participation. This year we had the African region the African youth IGF and the west African youth IGF and nigerian youth IGF that has been good for promoting the inclusion of Africans in Internet governance. Participation in the global IGF, that is mostly stated by supports to attend the global IGF. That is a very big problem for us here in Africa.
And personally, and there has been a lot of (?) to facilitate the participation over the years but it is not enough because we need to have more local support. The African youth now need to show the internet stakeholders the role in Internet governance and what we can actually contribute to the global IGF processes and that way we can easily get funding and support to then travel and participate in the IGF.
And sometimes it is not only about getting the support. Another challenge is visas. At the moment right now I'm not at the IGF because I was not able to get my visa approved in time to travel. That is the reality of many African youth. I'm not sure how we can the problem but if we can communicate this is a reality and it as problem for us because when you attend an IGF meeting on Internet governance, the best thing that comes to your mind shouldn't be, me gosh, I might get to visa to travel. If we can communicate the issues to the stakeholders we can come up with a solution or avenue avenues to explore to solve that problem.
And then last, but not the least, sometimes you can get all of the funding, you can get your visas but then participating in the event will be a challenge because most of the IGF activities may not particularly be tailored for youth participation.
So IGF organizers and IGF activity organizer nices should always ensure they have a youth agenda in their activity. It would make participation for the youth if they are able and can see they can actually contribute to the discussion.
I think that is something that all IG stakeholders can look into to see how we can facilitate the participation. I believe that the African youth have a lot to offer. We are smart and resourceful and just need support from our community and get our points and get all this and get all of the opportunities for our participation. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you for sharing your perspective. I enjoyed that you said we are smart and resourceful and I hope we are able in a discussion afterwards to come together to find answers to some of the issues you raised. I appreciate how you called is the healthy internet understanding that healthy internet raising the issue again of what is IGF and how do we present to stakeholders outside the IG sphere and encouraging those people to fund participants. I see the issue as well with visas. Hopefully we can briefly address this. This is generally quite out of our hands.
But I really look forwards perhapses to also opening further the discussion on how IGF activities are not tailored to youth participation because there is no youth agenda. Thank you very much for the comments. I would like to turn back to the remote moderator and ask whether or not Ellen Kusuma can join us who is joining us from Indonesia.
>> ELLEN KUSUMA: Hello? You can hear me. Can I get my preparation on the screen.
>> MODERATOR: Someone is planning a really exciting adventure somewhere. Are we invited? Wonderful. We can see your presentation now.
>> ELLEN KUSUMA: First of all, take you for the opportunity to come with the IG to ensure that IGF can join the session. So you have first three questions I would like to address the question first. The what do you face to come and participate at the IGF. The Indonesian context. Indonesia on average -- next slide, please. Okay.
So this is background. In Indonesia we have a large active internet user that in average spend around eight hours and a half every day in the internet. And in 2030, we will have like one of the demographic (?) which mean that youth will be the largest (?). However, there is also -- there is lack of youth representation that comes from inside the youth themself and also participate and get involved in the discussion of Internet governance Indonesia.
There is also on the other hand Indonesian youth are active on the internet and active users. Somehow they are aware on the internet policies, but, however, whatover comes from the controversies around the internet policies. We have I -- religious lated electronic transaction and (?) but some of the articles in the (echo in audio) so they are aware of internet -- some what aware of internet policies, but it cause the controversies.
So they are not really aware on the Internet governance ecosystem. There is an absence of inspiration platform for youth so they can like have their aspirations to the stakeholders of the Internet governance. Next slide, please.
So this is some issues that really have face in Indonesia. Misinformation. Privacy violation, cyber-bullying and hate speech and online SGBV and content moderation. Youth mostly have concern on these several issues. Especially right now SGBV and (?) based on many youth was affecting of (indiscernible). Next.
>> This is the barriers. We a very diverse sociocultural background. We have like 17 islands in Indonesia. So there are there there a wide-range target age. It is quite hard to reach all of this because the age gap. Also the scarce knowledge on the internet issues.
Internet is almost about anything. And the disparities on internet connection because Java is like the most popular and have the most internet infrastructure waiting for the people to access on the other islands like not (?). So what we do is we do the grass root intervention. We reach out to them. Engagement with the local community. We use gathering with the stakeholders and we also do online surveys and also information dissemination. Next.
The next question is how can we improve the improvement of youth at the IGF. From our experience like more initiatives. More awareness. More exposure. More collaboration and switching to youth policy forum. And not taking youth only as a symbol. That next slide, please.
This is the activities that we have that we did. Like we have been (?) (garbled audio) work on the general election issues with the stakeholders at google or (?) working on -- but, yeah, a lot of activities.
Next slide, please. We are doing some survey that ask the youth to fill out the survey about freedom of expression on the internet, most of the responders didn't feel safe on the net. Next slide, please. This is the activities on the issue of Internet governance. We have been there for two years. The participation is also lacking because (?). Next.
>> This is what we did on the privacy. Talking about privacy in Indonesia. Youth are aware of the internet policies like I said before but the Internet governance ecosystem they are not really aware on how to reach out to get and involve themself in the discussion. Next.
This is also a part of our activities. We did (?) and Facebook and we talked about mental health and (?). In Indonesia. I think as well will be kind of (garbled audio). Next.
Okay. I would like to address the collaboration. Highlight at the IGF to the global stakeholders. So I am hoping for a stronger solidarity for youth to speak on because the general problem is (?) global. And then improve and get youth to involve and not just (?) in ever I have discussion. For example, I (?) on the first day of the IGF and (?). A topic of next generation internet. The panel is eight white men and one woman only without youth. So how do you speak on next generation not involving youth at all in the discussion. I would like for the globals stakeholders to reach out to involve youth and not for just -- not for youth to just like ask for info, they need to actively involve them in the discussion.
That's the takeaway that I want to share in this session. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Ellen, for your intervention. It was interesting all of the points that you mentioned and I like what you said about youth not as a symbol. Youth not as a symbol to just be put on a stage to make a five minute or 10 minute commentary but then not actually engaging is not conducive. Saying we ticked the box and met the quota and we have done that and now we will have discussions with everybody else. The points you were making about that is important the manner which youth are being engaged is more actually engaging and involved. Youth are active internet users and sometimes policy makers do not even.
>> Under stand the manner in which we as youth use the internet and we come up with new innovations that they have never perceived so policy making it always one step pee behind. Policy making does not prepare for what is coming in the future because they are always reacting to things rather than preparing for these things and by engaging youth perhaps they will be able see in advance issues that will be raised in the future. And leads to an important point in terms of controversies around internet policies and lack of awareness of the policies and and how that influences people and causes them to get into big problems. We create an environment in which we are not really sure what's happening for ourselves and have consequences that we never envisioned would happen. I'm pleased that you were both able to join us remote Le. We would have loved to have you join us here. Plans we can see the future in Poland will be brighter for us in terms of participation here face to face.
I would like to go to our next speaker. Marko Paloki who is a SEEDIG ambassador, please.
>> MARKO PALOKI: Thank you. Hey, everyone. I'm Marko Paloki. Coming from north Macedonia and here I'm representative for the SEEDIG community. I will briefly tell what SEEDIG is doing with the youth school for the youth people to get more involved in the Internet governance and short hi brief some of the problems we in the SEE plus region are having with the Internet governance.
One of the problems we are having is many of the youth people and the other everyone is not very fair about what is Internet governance and what how can they get more to change things. So this is a really big problem because a lot of the people when you say Internet governance are connecting with the government think and they are not very how to say interested to do that.
So that is one of the problem. Awareness of the Internet governance in our region.
Second one I would say that most of this region have national IGFs and some internet site chapters but not all this and also not YouthIGF which is a very small number. Youth school is trying to gather some of this kind of region people so it can educate about Internet governance so it can make a baseline so when they come at their own country to make changes. Maybe start YouthIGF. We are encouraging them to make movement because with making some entity into your country you can then proceed with educating and making more involvement and sharing the Internet governance things in your country.
I am glad to say because last year I was youth participant in the youth group and after that I get more involved in the SEEDIG region and now I am SEEDIG ambassador and now this year finalizing the process for YouthIGF in Macedonia.
Also in this region the local support is let's say little. Maybe not, but, yeah, I would say little. And not every country and every national IGF wants to work with the YouthIGF. We have these kind of issues experienced but, yeah. So, yeah. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much for your intervention. It is really great to hear that you're working towards more YouthIGF. This week there were three countries that approached me saying we need a YouthIGF. And we don't know where to start because there is no information available on the IGF website and no information available online and people don't really know what documents to share. They can share the event but any don't know what is the criteria and the requirements. So if the people who want to is the up a YouthIGF are in the room, but I also have the contact details, I can't see everyone here, please do reach out to Marco who has clearly more understanding about the processes and requirements and how to move forward on this.
Which is really important that we now have the collaboration available and this understanding of how to move forward. So thank you very much. It is kind of worrying that we now had three interventions where people are saying yeah, we don't know how to present IG or the people do not know what IG is. Perhaps we need to start rediscussing or redevelopingle the manner in how we raise awareness on this or how we want to engage the type of people. In the meantime, I would like to turn to our next speaker, Jan Dohnal, from YouthDIG. Please.
>> JAN DOHNAL: Thank you, Nadia, for introducing. And possibility to joining the panel. And thank you all for joining us. Good morning. It is my great pleasure to share with you the outcomes of our meeting which happened in the Haig Netherlands this year where the YouthDIG happened. As you all probably know, YouthDIG is about to prepare young participants to join the EuroDIG session.
I can recommend that you participate in this event. Back to the concrete outcomes. We created messages and we can divide into the two broad categories.
The first is inclusion and the second is cyber security, trust and privacy.
So first category, digital ethics and inclusion. And the first message from us. Internet governance processes and policies about youth need to be better communicated so that the young people can be better informed and their participation strengthened through multistakeholder dialogue. Second message, emerging concerns online such as hate speech, fake news, privacy and cyber bullying are not sufficiently discussed and taught at schools. We envision building a curriculum that Sen forced by regulation focusing on raising awareness of the online environment and developing necessary at this timal skills and literacy of the youngest students. Harmonization of states, ethics codes on designing algorithm using digital cooperation including youth participation. That is the third message. And the fourth, we wish for the clucks of teenagers to the youth ambassadors program in the decision-making process on local, regional and national level. Already existing youth parliaments should be strengthened to give the leaders of tomorrow voice today.
And concerning the second broad category, cyber security. The first message is to reclaim privacy. We want governments to have proactive involvement instead of reactive measuresthy are happening today to raise awareness in data protection and online user safety we call the governments to foster public discussion and mainstream digital literacy in basic public education.
Second message, further more, we call on the private sector to make anonymity a viable option. Third, cyber security's collective effort that requires a multistakeholder approach. We should achieve with transparency while respecting our privacy. IoT is in continuous exponential development with growing capabilities and threats. We must raise awareness and reach and update education curriculum on IoT security. And the last message from us is that regulators should encourage technology to be open source to foster transparency and that is all from my side.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much for sharing the messages from YouthDIG. These are very strong statements and it shows a clear path forward about what the youth were deciding on. And these are some of them very don't Verduccial topics and some have clear roots and now we just need to decide how to advocate for them and how we will be able to implement them and move and stride forward. But it is clear that here we can actually argue with each other about the manner which we move forward. And that is very exciting to see that youth are dedicated to set policies to create their ideas and bridge them forward and thus we are going -- and that is what we are going to focus on. I would like to move to the last speaker, Elisabeth Schauermann the organizer of YouthIGF submits. Please go ahead.
>> ELISABETH SCHAUERMANN: Thank you, Nadia. I'm speaking from the German society and as many of you know this year we found favorable circumstances to convene a global group of young people, over 120 from over 40 countries to start a policy development process that heavily builds also on what the different initiatives have been doing for years in some cases.
And our goal was to network people, network initiatives but will is produce a tangibleout come to come to the IGF and be able to work on our advocacy where we can be present. And I really have to commend all of the participants on site but also remotely who participated and contributed and made this a real success. And really hope that we can try and transfer this to the forthcoming years.
So in the course of three months three webinars and then in a ming in Berlin, we came with three mess ams and you can find them on the website and you are welcome to use them, translate them and spread them and reach out to us any time. I have been reading those messages quite often throughout this IGF so I will refrain from that now but I will give you a basic overlook of the main ideas that we touched upon.
So, obviously one key thing and I now borrow a claim from the disability movement is nothing about us without us. So we were speaking about youth participation and the barriers that young people face in Internet governance. Specifically, we were talking about digital education and how to skill people and what is needed to -- in what is needed to get young people to participate meaningfully in the digital age and we talked about child protection online and how children should be included in the discussion when it is about them.
Our next theme was safety and security. As our participants have identified youth as a vulnerable group in many circumstances, they talked about critical infrastructure and made suggestions for cyber security strategies.
Our third theme was access to the internet but also an accessible internet once you are connected. Going forward. Telemain themes. One was platform governance ranging from regulation to self-regulation to transparency especially and also open data and research going back to education as well.
And our last theme was data and privacy but mostly along the lines of AI, algorithmic decision making and facial recognition. So our participants identified threats but also major recommendations somehow to approach the topics. And throughout all of the messages what really stuck out was that we addressed over and over again multistakeholder responsibility for all of these themes and topics and questions and youth should definitely be consulted in all levels. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much for your intervention. And if you are interested to reading the key messages they are up on the IGF website, right, the 11 key messages?
>> ELISABETH SCHAUERMANN: It is not our website.
>> MODERATOR: They use the messages to go into different platforms and different discussions to bring the ideas forward and demand that these were being discussed and that was wonderful to see and it is a great opportunity for people to be involved with.
So, I would like to ask if we can put up on the screen Sox what we did while speaking about the different perspectives on the issues in the different regions we set up a map about the issues that were important to us and we outlined the plea policy questions that we have associated with the session. The first policy we was which issues do you want to highlight as priority key point at the IGF to global stakeholders. The second policy question is how can we improve involvement and return rates of youth at the IGF. And the last one is which challenges do youth face to attend and participate at the IGF.
So while we wait for the plectica to be on the screen and you can see the issues they are involved I would like to move to policy question number two. How can we improve involvement and return rates of youth at the IGF? Some things that we have notice is that the people that do return every year are the people who come from organizations and have the capabilities and funding to be able to return to also often from western countries who have less problems with visas.
And the people who do not return are people who are one-timers just new to the IG processes or just learning more and not returning back. Why does this happen? I actually wanted to tell a story regarding this and this will give me -- this will give the speakers a little opportunity to make their -- to clarify their thoughts on the question before I Green Bay give you the floor -- before I give you the for. The first time I went to IGF I went to Geneva and had the worst time ever. I was on a panel regarding fake news.
It was a great session and the moderator really involved me but afterwards there was nobody who was really acknowledging or I didn't need any kind of pat on my back or anything like that, but people ignored the statements that I said and really focused on other issues that for example that I counter pointed completely ignoring what I was saying.
I went to stakeholders and I asked them can I contact you because I think that your work is aligned to mine. And they gave me fake e-mail addresses.
I got fake e-mail addresses from stakeholders here and I felt -- I e-mailed them the same day and said my project aligns with yours or I have a group of people who are working towards a cause that you are doing so I think that they should be involved in your processes or I said you are working on a particular project I would love to invite you to my university to talk more about it and I got fake e-mail addresses. I did not feel welcome being here.
There was one person in the entire event that really kind of changed the process for me. And I have to come back to the comment that Ellen made that at that moment in time I felt there was an absence of inspiration platform for youth so they can become -- so they can have aspirations to become stakeholders.
There were two people who actually made me stay. One is Michael who is in the room who introduced me to YCIG and he encouraged me and pushed me to get involved to have the courage to walk up to speakers.
But I want to talk about someone who is luckily not in the room and I am not going to mention because I don't know if he would like me to. He made all of the difference. One person who did not know me saw that I looked lost and came to sit next to me and said hi, my name is. Was session was about ICANN and that is complicated if you are not any familiar to the process at all. I sit there and looking at this ICANN event and this person comes up and says that person is from that board and they are talking about this issue. This is important because of X, YZ. They are talking about IPv6. He explains IPv6 is. They talk about IoT and every time he executive plains it. That makes the difference for a young person to want to return to do better and push other stakeholders who do not take your seriously because there is one person who inspires you to teach other people and he inspires me and Michael inspires me to come back to YCIG every year. They inspire me to do take the time to explain to someone I was in this session and I look does that person look confused? I see young people sitting alone. I come and sit next to them and say hey, my name is I'm here from YCIG. Can I explain to you something?
This type of mentorship leads other people to come back. Because they feel included. Many of you are able to return back because you come as ambassadors and you have a community of a group and say hey, let's all come together. Some people from YouthDIG you come together and say we feel welcome, we come together. We need to create a platform and environment for youth coming as individuals and youth who come from areas who are not familiar to the IG process and don't know where their topic fits in.
I met people who studied business but are not consultants. I have met software engineers who work on coding but don't really fit in the policy sector but they come back because they found their community and I hope that YCIG but other you as an individual can be that type of mentor. Having spoken regarding misparsal experience, I believe your involvement and and return rates is about how we decide to get involved whether we are a young person or older person, it is about reaching out to people and giving them the feeling that they are being acknowledged and listened to.
I would like to look at my panel here and ask them whether or not you have any comments or ideas of how we can improve involvement and return rates of youth at the IGF.
>> Have I tried to facilitate, I definitely have thoughts on it. It always helps to be seen or see yourself as part of a group. And as a of a note work. And for these such sessions and youth programs are great but we has cannot deny like imbalances in power and funding that then also reflect on the visibility of young people or how they are treated by others. We can be nice to each other all we want, but we also have to be quite realistic that without a stringent advocacy strategy and how we move forward and really pushing the topic, people will always be excluded and we don't want to exclude them because this process is designed to be open. There are just hurdles, that might not be visible when you first look at them. But I would be super happy to hear not only from the two of you but also from the room how you manage to do this.
I'm coming from a very privileged position and I, of course, don't see every aspect of how to can be difficult or easy to participate.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for your comment. I was wondering if Uffa who is joining us online has ideas because she mentioned a few mentions early, a few mentions early -- a few issues earlier that was related to the African youth. Uffa, I don't know if she is available.
>> UFFA MODEY: Hello?
>> MODERATOR: We can hear you.
>> UFFA MODEY: For the African youth we have to understand the issues of Internet governance and I feel like we can solve the problem of understanding and there is a lot that we can do after that. And then participating and then helping ourselves to understand the issues. Grass roots (?) from the region and outside the African region. We do a lot of work and showing and promoting (indiscernible) young people who understand the community. So then matching them up with industry experts because it does a lot to have someone that you can talk to answer the question to explain what the acronyms are and (echo in audio) and that kind of connection that are good sometimes.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. I'm looking back at my panel. Is there anyone who would like to make a comment? (Echo in the audio).
>> I would here. When I was an ISOC ambassador I came back home and started the process of creating YouthIGF in my country.
I can mention that there are a lot of problems that the youth come back, talking for my region for southeast Europe not everybody in the company or industries are open to support and do like this. When you are youth they think that this is not serious.
And second, they are not interested in pronoting these kind of things and supporting this because they do not make money off this or do not -- it is not their primary business or they don't want it. So what I suppose is we can -- everybody can do something after these kind of events. IGF, Euro Dig and SEEDIG. You make contacts and they can help you. If I didn't make the contacts with ISOC ambassadors last year I wouldn't come with the idea to create YouthIGF in my country. They helped me how to organize and do inning this and go to the institution or some companies that may help you.
Of course, you need the local support at some level but my -- how to say my in tuition is to push it and make it happen because if we do not make it, nobody else will make it for us.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Jan, you wanted to also comment?
>> JAN DOHNAL: Thank you, Nadia. I enjoyed that my other colleagues and panelists mentioned mentorship. This is exactly what I want to talk about and what I missed.
I will are participated in ICANN meeting and for the newcomers it can be very overwhelming. A lot of sessions is ongoing at the same time. A lot of acronyms quite similar as here. It would be amazing to have one meanter to guide you through the whole program. For example, if you have the legal background, the mentor could guide you which sessions are the best for you. He could introduce you to panelists or basically you would feel more welcome and not like Nadia, Nadia mentioned at the beginning that sometimes the newcomers they don't really feel welcome. And second thing which I want to mention is that it is not only about participating in one event or second event. It is really important what is happening in between.
So your participation should show that you did something. For example, if you didn't hear, ICANN has a very nice program for youngsters. It is called the next gen and we are doing it together with the mentor you are preparing presentation and during the ICANN meeting itself you are presenting what you worked before on. And that's what I can recommend. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much for your recommendations. So for all of the people that just came in to the room, all of the issues that we discussed over the last nearly an hour are up on the Plectica so you have the ideas and thoughts that have come from the panelists. I just want to open briefly to the floor. We will take three questions and then I would like to move to the next policy question. So in which then you will have a larger floor to talk about the challenges everybody faces. I would like to have three questions. Who has any questions?
There is one over here. There is two, three. So in that order, please. If you would like to -- I don't think I have a mic here. But please step up to one of the microphones.
>> Thank you so much.
Thank you for offering your seat. I'm from Afghanistan and I represent internet society of Afghanistan chapter and as well as the national IGF in Afghanistan. Likely okay once like we really appreciate those who support me to come here. My first global IGF and since last three years I have been one of the key organizing committee member of national IGF in Afghanistan.
So like experiencing the global one is my first time with lots of experience. I had a question. Like in since last two years that we are organizing national IGF, we covered the YouthIGF and one of our parallel sessions for two or three hours. But this time since we notice very prominent and tangible outcome from our IGF events, so and especially that attracted our youth, so this time we have planned to organize a YouthIGF like separately. It was supposed to happen on 16 November but due to the global IGF most of the team were traveling and financial issued we were obligated to postpone so most likely mid Decembe will happen. We talk about the cyber security and fake news and IoT and the topics are not always in context to the areas of geographic locations like in Afghanistan.
What are the most prominent effective topics that should be covered that youth can absorb and can learn from it, if anyone, one of the speakers or anyone who can answer this.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Can I take the second question and third question before we answer this.
>> I'm Elliott from Australia. Here as part of the ISOC youth ambassador program. Australia doesn't have a fantastic YouthIGF present. This establishing YouthIGFs particular hi in large diverse countries Australia is a big place and Indonesia is a big place and Germany is a big place. How do YouthIGFs balance geographic diversity and diversity even within the country particularly from youth whether it be youth participating from universities or perhaps still this school. I would be interested to hear how that sort of diversity is tackled.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for your question. Here on the right.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. I'm from Pakistan to ask a question and I want to comment on your second question how can be improved participation with the youth at IGF. I'm just of two people here and because I I haven't hear about IGF before you told me one month ago. Basically you and my uncle met in reality to come to the IGF before I even have this idea. I know that I am the only one from my province to participate in IGF from the (?) besides going to spoke about the IGF I will sit with the stakeholders and brief my youth about the IGF. And every time to have maximum participation in the poll because the way you made for me here in the -- in Germany, I would like to have the same for my youth for my country young people in Poland. Thank you so much.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. I would like to -- I'm cautiously looking at my panel. Perhaps you can address the questions. But did you want to ask a question or make a comment.
>> I have to go soon unfortunately so I wanted to make an important intervention about YCIG.
If you want to address the questions and if it is okay with everyone I would like to request the floor.
>> MODERATOR: Would you like to make your interventions first?
>> ELISABETH SCHAUERMANN: I would like to touch upon the first two questions regarding which topics are to be addressed in the YouthIGF. Those topics have to come from the young people themselves. This is a long process. You have to figure out a way to did them -- to ask them or be open to their questions. Especially in the context that is regional or national those are specific sometimes and I would just try and Kateer to that as much as possible.
And to the question on how to balance diversity. Germany is not big so we didn't do a good job in our national IGF this year. This is super hard because apart from trying to address everybody and gathering enough funds to also make them, you know, be able to travel throughout the country, there is little you can do like in a second but I believe if you make your involvement sustainable and can try to reach more people over time.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. I heard that Uffa who is online with us wanted to make an answer.
>> UFFA MODEY: The second question are interrehated. In Nigeria we have nie yearia IGF as well. It is a huge country with a huge population and very, very diverse community. But what we did was that we took as many on the students and professionals in the Nigeria with IGF and also what I want to say for the question is that when organizing a YouthIGF or basically trying to meet youth on Internet governance you should not focus on defining what they should participate in. You should give them the broad overview of the Internet governance ecosystem and not ways this he can contribute. That way they are able to define topics that interest and then follow through on their part. If not, you will be just forcing issues this them. However, if they know what organizations they would like to follow the activities, what discussion they would like to jump on and things like that, it will be easier for them to have more contributions.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for your comments.
Before -- I would like to move to the third policy question, but before this, Michael wanted to make an intervention.
>> AUDIENCE: Quickly before I -- well I essentially I have been involved in YCIG since 2015 and between 2016 and 2017 I was on the interim steering committee.
And a few thing Hayes just want to bring up quickly. It is involving both the second policy question that you raised, Nadia, as well as something much larger.
And basically, first of all, talking about young people we need to take something out of the lexicon and that is that young people do not care about Internet governance. They care time after time, survey after survey people around the world care about privacy and security and it is important in terms of communication from our point of view to not hurt our own argument and our own cause. That is number one. Number two, resources. There are plenty of resources. I know because I have collected them. They are on the YCIG website and there is a better, longer and more thorough version on the Euro DIG Wiki. FYI, number three is about the importance of the national and regional and subregional initiatives. It is difficult to get young people here. Especially since the fact that it has been in Europe for the past three years and in Europe next year as well. I heard, I absolutely understand the intervention that we heard from our colleague in Africa the fact is it is difficult for young people to get involved in the NR Is because they are not willing to work with young people. The best anecdote and solution is to kin ercontinue to organize ourselves and maintain the solidarity that comes from self-organizing and comes from especially collecting best practices because obviously not every situation is similar. Having said that I'm genuinely concerned about the future of the YCIG. I cannot thank Nadia enough and this is not meant to be self-congratulatory, she really took over for the YCIG after me and we could have had a leadership vacuum if it wasn't for her. Her term is ending soon. I'm concerned about how the YCIG will continue going forward and continue to support existing youth initiatives. I call on anybody in the room, clearly you care about the issues, you know, to step up, if this is something that interests you, if you have the time. Because I really am concerned about what is going to be happening in the years coming forward, will the YCIG also face a problem where it do die. It could become inactive. That something that it really takes tireless work. I know because I did it and Nadia has been absolutely incredible for the past two years. And so I really want to thank you for that, Nadia. And encourage everyone here, anyone that is part of the YCIG to make sure that it does not die because youth issues at the youth voices absolutely need to be included and absolutely need to be amplified and if we are not going to do it, nobody else will. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Michael, for your comments. You gave an interlead into a notice that I wanted to give. The YCIG now has their elections and it is now your opportunity if you are dedicated on improving youth participation at the IGF you can amy. My statutory term ends which means that I'm not allowed to actually go again for election. There is a two year maximum time that I can sit on the steering committee. I can still be involved and I love being involved and I want to present to you some projects that I have for the future. But my term ends here. And after me, if you do not apply, then we do not have a representative for youth that sits in a Dynamic Coalitions meetings. We do not have a representative that will attend meetings as a Dynamic Coalition representative. We think it is extremely important that you step up and provide this opportunity for people. You are not alone. I succeeded in Michael. He was still here in the sessions contributing. So will I come back next year in Poland be there to help you and support you throughout your term. You are not alone we are here to mentor you and make sure that you succeed to empower other youth and develop other youth to either come to the IGF or to participate in communities around you because we believe in you and want to frost they are development. If you do know people in the community you think they can really do something internationally if you do not have the time yourself or the resources, if you know people who can want to learn because this is a learning process. We don't expect you to be the leader already but this is a learning process. If you want to come and learn from not only us but also the mentors we have. This is your chance now. The elections are open. Register your name and nominate yourself to be part. It is one person per region. So you aplay and compete against your region.
So there is no contestants from my region. I'm from western Europe and the other groups.
But that being said I would like to move on to the last policy question. Which challenges do youth face to attend and participate at the IGF. Before I open it up to the audiences that are here, I would like to ask how many of you have actually tried to join in the remote participation? Because I tried to do it earlier today and it is really hard. I can do Adobe illustrator and design things but I do not understand how to navigate root he moat session. It took me a good 20 minutes half hour and if you are not dedicated to the cause. My dedication is make sure I'm capable to speak with the people joining me remote hi. If you are a young person and it takes you longer than five minutes to try to access the internet that is never going to happen. I have a lot of colleagues joining us from Afghanistan that wanted to be here in person and they are not capable of logging in because they only have a mobile phone and they cannot join remotely. This is complicated. So what challenges do you face in your regions? What do you face to be able to attend and participate at the IGF?
I understand we had questions about visas already and this is something that we need to look towards the MAG to encourage also your governments when you are at IGFs can we please host the IGF? The global IGF? But then I open the floor to you. What are your thoughts and ideas? There is one hand here. Is there anyone else who has a comment or a question? A second one. Let's start with the two speakers. Interventions and then we will move beyond that.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. So everybody can hear me, right? So this is Veronica Aroya. I want to highlight even though we all pass through some difficult situation as you mentioned before, we had bad experience, I have to highlight as well that we all already had good experiences as well. And a good part or a good way to have those good experiences is to belong to groups. Here at least for example you have been seeing a realgy -- sorry I'm just sick today so I cannot speak properly. For example in the case of the youth observatory and the, even though you are not able to come you have the support of other people online that will always be there for you. We organized YouthIGFs in other parts of the world and it has been valuable the opportunities we have friends like you who care about the same issues. The experience is much better when you beHong to a group. Read the youth atlas that has some stories -- our stories basically. You can take this example but I wanted to also highlight the the problems.
You mentioned visas. That is quite important and it is really important when you have a community -- a global community and you come from developing countries and that is a point.
Then the next point is funding. It is really difficult, maybe for developed countries it is easy to get funding because you have a lot of companies that can -- that do social work. But when you come from developing countries that is very difficult. They do not allocate things for youth IGFs. You have to have really good connections to get those fundings. And enterprises won't say you because they don't see something there.
This moves to my third point opportunities.
The youth observatory proposed three workshops for the IGF. For the first time they were not about inclusion of youth in the IGF. For the first time we proposed things relate artificial in tell against about dis information and problems with content. Sorry, I'm really sick right now. And we propose like things that really matter that really we care. As Michael mentioned like Internet governance is something there but we care about specific topics. But none of the three workshops were accepted. Some of the how can I say the reviews that we received was that this were not enough diversity in our group. But if you read the names of the people who were there listed as speakers it was clearly easy to see that people were from different countries. We just needed to read the names. So we faced this for the first time because the other past IGFs we asked for more inclusion, we talk about the future of work and things like that. And then the sessions were approved. But this time when wanted to propose and start talking about serious stuff that affects us we didn't have the opportunity. I think opportunities here for us is real hi pop. And why? Because if I say that I have a session on artificial intelligence or a session on hate speech or something like that, then I can get funding. That is my point. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for sharing your experience. It is important to understand how can we participate in the process and if the submissions are being projected then we -- rejected we need to understand how and why and in a manner we can improve or changing mindsets.
Yeah, please go ahead.
>> AUDIENCE: Hi, everyone. This is Jenna from dot-Asia organizations. I'm the colead but the coordinator of an online academy for youth in Asia Pacific and the coordinator of the Asia-Pacific YouthIGF. I want to address on the challenges that I find as a youth to participate in IGF which is how we as a youth to participate IGF as contributor.
Because just give a really brief review on how I participate. The regional IGF processes or other academy Asia-Pacific. In the Asia-Pacific regional IGF you can contribute or participate at the process at workshop organize arrobas there is different initiative and we take action to submit workshop instead of sitting in the room commenting or giving opinion we will be the leader of certain workshops to contribute in the entire Internet governance process in that way. Other than that, I would like to mention the Asia-Pacific Internet governance academy that we have in Asia-Pacific also.
That ambassador not involved as participant only but as youth facilitators a for certain sessions also. So I would say I find it is kind of challenging to engage in IGF sometimes as a youth from Asia-Pacific, let's say for example I find it hard just to speak on one of the panel as a youth, as a woman from Asia-Pacific. So I think this is one of the challenges that youth are facing in Internet governance forum because maybe because there is like -- I see that the notes online on the platform saying that because of lack of knowledge or lack of opportunity. Maybe because there are many certain several reasons that make it really challenging to engage in that way.
I think we a value as a youth to contribute as workshop organizers or as a speaker also. I think that is the point we can put effort in working on. Like what I also mentioned last year in the -- in the same setting also, in this youth community, if we want to bring -- if we want to improve our youth involvement in Internet Governance Forum maybe within YCIG we can improve the diversity of the youth community also. Maybe give more opportunity for youth from Africa or from Asia-Pacific or Latin America to speak up more so we think in our youth community we can have a more completed view of the youth community but not in certain part of the world only. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Unfortunately for the last two years YCIG has been very western focused because we don't always have people elected from all the regions. And then whoever is on the steering committee then takes over the regions and try their best to reach out to the communities. And, of course, we would prefer having people from the communities reaching out and collaborating with us across borders. Across cultures, to be able to achieve things. Any other comments or questions about challenging? You wanted to --
>> Did you -- all right. Would you like to make a comment?
>> AUDIENCE: Hello, my name is Margarita. I'm representing social impact private company that we work with the global competence and teenagers but a bit younger, 9-14. Being in youth organizations myself when I was in the youth category and also working with a lot of youth up until now, I'm an educator. I want to sigh and share a few thoughts on how, first of all, to address Michael's point, the potential issue of having more people participating in this initiative.
And as well as to -- it targets other questions as well right away. So the be problem with the youth participating is usually motivation or lack of it or not understanding what is the motivation behind this or that initiative. If young people do not see why they have to input extra work, they already have homework, right, we have o remember that, they will not do it. And there are very few adults and definitely very few parents who would explain to them the value of this or that initiative or project.
So having some kind of road map so their potential benefits or career options in the future if they are part of IGF for example and presenting it comprehensively on the website or you mentioned the Facebook page, I don't any if there is a website. Making it easier to access the information. Something to the point without a lot of text, thatle hook their attention. That is number one. And number two, following up on that. This gentleman was asking how to know what young people want to talk about.
And I agree that we have to ask them, but we also have to guide them because they don't know everything. And they are not following the news. They don't know the challenges that exist?
The digital world. So how do guide them is also our responsibility. And in this case, we can have leaders like yourself over here to establish meetings for the youth that's happen here. I know there were some meetings in the cafeteria in the canteen.
I was not invited for example it was my first time here and I had no idea and I would like to join and listen as well. Having comprehensive information just like a stand here we have a lunch meeting with the youth, come join, participate contribution these kind of easy directions for the youth. I'm in the category of youth in terms of age, but even for me it is difficult to understand where to go, who can I talk with and who is responsible for youth and who is not.
Physical directions in the space and venue are very important. It is difficult for me and imagine for a person who is 20-22 and the first time in a huge conference hike this it is overwhelming and -- like this it is overwhelming. Motivation in terms of why they should be here is one.
And direction, more guidance is number two. The second point I wanted to share briefly, people that work with youth they have a lot of access, we have a the lot of access and we with -- a lot of access and we can share more information. Creating some kind of community for people who work with youth already and we can share this information on maybe bimonthly basis, look there will be another forum next year. So you can update, you can upload your questions online on whatever tool you are using for this conference and your question will be answered and this is where it will lead to. So having this comprehensive information that can come from us as well. So I am pretty sure that since we are all here and those who work with the youth would be interested in that, too. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for your contribution. It was very valuable to know that we have support that goes just beyond youth and peer-to peer-learning and peer-to peer structures.
Thank you for letting us know that you are here and we can reach out to you. You raise the some very excellent points and some of them there is definitely things that we can atreasure here that can be improved for Poland. Creating the people working with the youth. We have the Facebook page and a website and even if you are not a young person underneath the age of 35 you can still YCIG as an observer and you would still be able to send all of your details over the mailing lists as part of the if Uber group. So any classes that you are giving, any workshops, any webinars we try to promote as much as possible as well as news that is happening in your regions.
So I -- I kind of see you looking at me that you wanted to make a follow-up so I will briefly Green Bay you the word before giving the word to Jennifer. In five minutes we immediate to close. I encourage you to stay so we can take the annual YCIG photo which is when we remind the IGF that youth of a big stakeholder and we take a picture to show how many of us there are. Sadly, however, many of us had to leave already. There was about 30-40 people who have apologized for not being here. We will @ them in the comments saying wish you were here. Make your follow up, please.
>> AUDIENCE: One more point following your story how you got involved in the forum, leadership or training, personal development, professional development training is something that interests youth a lot and I hear a lot of discussions whoer focusing on youth have -- they state the problem but don't know how to address -- how to find a solution in a sustainable way that can be actually applied. So your story is actually an answer to that.
Students are interested. Youth are interested in getting more training in professional and personal development and by being here it is provided by the leaders like yourself. Maybe it is not structured yesterday but it could be and could be one of the motivations for them to join as well contribution this is not unfortunately highlighted anywhere from the forum from what I notice but that is an important crucial point for then and for the future of the YouthIGF.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you, very much. Jennifer?
>> AUDIENCE: I'm Jennifer cook we build digital communities with young people around the world.
Sh why I'mstered in youth issues and just the fact that I care also. I come from a public health background actually and I have lived through the international HIV-AIDS conferences for time after type every two years and they are a huge deal so I have trips and tricks if that is helpful. Indeed, a kind of youth zone is helpful. A dedicated space that attractive to young people. Also the communications work which also Michael talked about it really crucial, making sure that it is UX designed and not corporate looking and boring a really important. Some of the YouthIGF communications isn't all that sexy actually to be honest with you. Think about your users. Speak to them in their colors and their voice and their branding styles. They will listen to you a lot more. Use gorilla marketing. You want to attract young local people. Do papering, do marketing to them. Go online. To those are really useful and cheap strategies and you guys have energy which is really great.
Also, in terms of visas. So that is really -- that is -- boy, that is a just a who are remember scenario and the right to freedom movement is one of the most violated rights in the word and that angers me. If you know ahead of time where the conference is going to be hook up with the embassy in your country. If it is the German embassy and you are in Cameroon or whatnot, get a connection and start talking to the staff there and when it gets rejected shame the ambassador on internet, on Twitter. It worked for us with Yemen. Systematically we have problems. The young person rejected put the name of theambassador in the tweet and made a big deal and the decision was reversed. We have to work hard at it and be gutsy. I think I'm almost done. The leadership and mentoring and having a structure for supporting young people before after and during the conference is crucial and what they can get out of the session. And the.
>> DESMOND: Ignore the little people. In strategic work we want to target the minister and policy maker. Don't forget the person in charge of writing the content for the website and organizing the track sessions. You can get youth visibility from the beginning in some of the content put out without going through a lot of trouble.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much for your contribution. It is the warrior style I like it about it and enenergizing. Naming and shaming the ambassadors, wow. To get to your cause and get to your goals we need to be gutsy. Thank you for the contribution. I will be super cheeky there is one comment in the back I would like to take. It has been a quiet corner there so just this one comment.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you very much. I'm from Gambia. Just kind of homework for us. We talked of so many challenge but seems most of us are abouting back without knowing how we are going to start. I do real Idaho that we have so many initiatives.
How do we coordinate to see we are working towards achieving the same goal? Like what is the cooperation? I do believe it would be more sensible if the initiatives are working together than the divided format of work that we are using. That is what I have really seen. In Africa, most don't have a pivot point where they met and said we are addressing this, let's start from here. Thank you.
>> We focus on partnership and collaboration. I highly encourage to let them know that YCIG exists. I do not want to stand between you and your lunch. I wanted to remind you to please stay for the picture and also we are collecting your thoughts and ideas. It is in a Plectica and we will leave that open for you to peruse and send to your friends and family and people if you our communities to add to the ideas and also find your solutions towards those and we will present that in the official report that will be handed over to the IGF.
I briefly wanted to talk about, you know, three projects for Poland. Of course our youth expert list is still open. Please add your name and tell your friends to add your name. In API, once we all sub smit our session names we will be reaching out to other session organizers to remind them youth are stakeholders and we need to have youth experts on panels. Please be involved with that.
In Paris we tried to set up a program in which YCIG hosts the Newbies program. This year there was no one that organized it to present so there was a room full of people and there was no presenter and a lot of people were really shocked that the IGF for Newbies was empty. So we will lobby that we get to host this. And Jan's comments and comments around the room, talk to me after the session to key can try and facilitate and see how we can move forward and join yourself as mentors or recommend someone to move forward as a project.
And lastly regarding skill building. If Poland I had the blessing to study in Poland.
I did my master there's. Regarding a venue, perhaps I have the opportunity to provide a venue to use to do skills development before the IGF. We do not have funding or program but we do have a the playoff intentions and goodwill. If you are -- a lot of intentions and good Wil. If you are capable of providing stills and would like to work with set up something like this reach out to me because that is something that we wanted to look forwards to. Thank being said, thank you so much, all for joining our ocean and I want to thank very much owl of our speakers able to join us here in person but also remotely. And thank my co-moderator Virginija Balciunaite. The Y 6 steering committee key said hello. Thank the remote moderators for the work. The system is complex but they make it easy for us to work with the people who who are not able to be there. This is a live transcription. Soy if you could write your.
>> I'm Andra Smith.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much for transcribing. We appreciate all your hard work.
>> Thank you very much to the translator that work here. And, of course, your audience. Your topics and discussions are important to us and it only helps us to make the IGF 2020 more accessible to youth. So with this, I would like to close the session. Thank you all very much and please come forward to join us are for the picture.
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