In this blog, Olu from the Childnet Youth Advisory Board looks at the Board’s third call in preparation for their residential in October.
What are you looking forward to most about the residential?
I’ll be meeting the youth advisory board members for the first time! I’m excited to get to know everyone and to start working solidly on our toolkit!
At the residential, you will be working together on a resource for young people. On the call you discussed three potential issues to tackle, what were they?
During the call, we discussed three main potential issues we wanted to tackle: reliability, sexting and nudes, and mental health.
One suggestion put forward on our ideas board which we worked on independently, was that sexting and nudes was a topic commonly covered during school PSCHE lessons. Additionally, such scenarios in these lessons have high stakes e.g. A student’s sexual messages will be leaked if the student doesn’t pay the person who has the information. This also interlinked with another point made that some young people do not necessarily follow the advice given e.g., talking to a trusted adult in a case like this.
Feedback from the ideas board also highlighted various issues such as scams, news, micro trends and the influence of influencers on consumerism. A couple of points mentioned were; the challenges in distinguishing negative from positive influencers, ensuring influencers use their platform to speak on up-to-date information and the vulnerability of younger minds to online propaganda.
Moreover, we discussed the significance of mental health. Some key points mentioned were the contribution of the internet and social media to mental health; and the importance of self-care and well-being. We highlighted that while mental health awareness is frequently discussed in schools, the approach taken needs improvement. Additionally, schools need to address body image issues, the impact of influencers, and their contribution towards mental health.
On the last call, we had a discussion to help professionals get the language right when talking about the sharing of nude images among young people. What help and suggestions were the group able to offer?
In our last call, Tom, one of our board facilitators, put forward some terms which organisations such as the government, IWF, and the police have been thinking about.
To this, the feedback given was that the phrase ‘self-generated’ sounded inhumane and like AI. ‘Youth-generated’ came across as robotic and ‘self-shared’ implies the young person is at fault for their actions and doesn’t take into account that they could be in a vulnerable position. Furthermore, we agreed the term most suitable in relation to young people sharing images of other young people without consent, was ‘non-consensually shared’.
Why is it important to consult young people on how best to talk about sensitive issues?
I believe it’s important to consult young people on sensitive topics as they hold firsthand insights from their experiences. Thus, they will feel welcome to express their thoughts and feelings as well as give information other young people can relate to. Additionally, as young people spend a significant amount of time online, they would be able to identify challenges that older generations may overlook.
