IGF 2023 WS #362 Youth Role in Sustainable, Greener Internet Policymaking

Organizer 1: Stella Anne Ming Hui Teoh, NetMission.Asia
Organizer 2: Luke Rong Guang Teoh, NetMission.Asia
Organizer 3: Bea Guevarra, 🔒NetMission.Asia

Speaker 1: Miki Fukuda, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Luke Rong Guang Teoh, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Lina Tanaka, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Denise Leal, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 5: Jaewon Son, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Moderator

Stella Anne Ming Hui Teoh, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Online Moderator

Bea Guevarra, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Rapporteur

Bea Guevarra, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Format

Round Table - 90 Min

Policy Question(s)

A. How are youth being involved in policymaking about environmental impact of technology/Internet or achieving Sustainable/Greener Internet?
B. How can youth participation in the AI ecosystem empower reimagination of governance processes (e.g. citizen juries)?
C. What regulations may be put in place to address the potential biases and discrimination that could appear in the creation and application of AI/other emerging technologies? (e.g. amplification of gender bias)
D. What are best practices of youth engagement in sustainability-related policymaking?
E. How can we sustain youth engagement and encourage youth into career pathways connected to sustainable, greener Internet policymaking through trust?

What will participants gain from attending this session? Better understanding of the current situation surrounding youth involvement in technology/Internet-related sustainability policymaking processes. Insight on how to become more actively involved in available avenues or tools to offer input for future policies. Platform to discuss present challenges and potential solutions. Learn about best practices from local Japanese researcher and local Japanese youth organisation efforts.

Description:

Youth are often celebrated as agents of change, with recent years seeing many youths actively engaged in social mobilisation as they aim to achieve some form of societal change, whether it be related to the environment, or to addressing existing inequalities. Although the potential of youth can be universally recognised, the story of challenges faced by youth is not the same all around the world.

As policymakers make efforts to include youth input in policy drafting and implementation, the emphasis is often on topics of education and privacy. However, youth input is very relevant to the topic of a sustainable and greener Internet. Previous efforts to involve youths include initiatives like Youth-Led Sustainable Community Development, but more formalised participation in policy-output-oriented processes is not discussed often. Youth inclusion in policymaking is invaluable because the youth demographic are the fastest adopters of emerging tech, which gives them potential to initiate/drive change. The divide between youth globally is relatively lower, with 70% of the world’s youth connected online, creating a much more interconnected “global” community.

In order to achieve inclusive youth representation at policymaking processes, the element of trust between the youth demographic and mainstream policymaking stakeholders needs to be explored and considered.

Expected Outcomes

The session organisers hope to publish the session’s outcomes in form of article and infographic as well as leverage new connections into a more long-term partnership with the local partners (to achieve better representation of East Asian(Japanese) perspective among NetMission.Asia network members) We hope to continue to work on previous work by NetMission.Asia alumnus on the topic of youth role in sustainability-related policymaking processes. We plan to facilitate knowledge sharing across youth communities to achieve inclusive, trusted and meaningful youth representation at policymaking processes for a sustainable and greener Internet.

Hybrid Format: Short input statements from speakers and youth initiative representatives will be provided in advance to participants via the IGF programme website for a common starting ground. Session report will be published in article and infographic form. We plan to partner with interested youth initiatives as min-hubs. The moderator will also adhere to a strict time management and encourage participants online and onsite to take the floor. This will be supported by at least one moderator taking care of input from the local and regional hubs and of the chat as an additional channel for participation. Miro Board will also be used to collect input from attendees or interested parties (pre-event), and some input there may be discussed during the session, the input and the output will be shared publicly via NetMission.Asia’s website, newsletter or social media platforms.