At the residential in October, the Childnet Youth Advisory Board developed ideas for a new educational resource tackling the issue of reliability online. In the latest blog, Maximilian reflects on the residential, talks through the board’s ideas, and how it feels to see the resource coming together.
Meeting everyone was one of our highlights of the residential, we were able to exchange ideas, joke around, and develop bonds that we couldn’t do through a screen. We participated in many activities during the weekend, which allowed us to communicate and understand each other better. Another highlight was presenting our group projects to our parents, staff from Nominet and Childnet’s CEO, Will Gardner OBE. This meant that our youth perspectives were being heard by top executives. The study we conducted for Middlesex University and the University of East London was another highlight. We were able to participate in a VR experience with researchers and give them feedback and our opinions regarding the “Metaverse”. I was really impressed that the researchers took us seriously, wanted to know how we felt and what our experiences were. We didn’t feel like guinea pigs or test subjects, we felt like co-creators.
At the residential, the board all worked on new resource ideas for Childnet to tackle the issue of reliability online. It was really interesting to discuss reliability as a group, come up with different perspectives and examine them together. Amazingly, as we began to work in smaller groups, we all brought such different and creative ideas on how to tackle reliability online. For example, one group created an online game, with the idea of media literacy as the foundation. Another group proposed a peer counselling service that could be implemented in schools. And my personal favourite was the group that proposed short form content that Childnet could post and share with the community at large.
The Childnet Education Team have started working on the toolkit using our ideas. Seeing our ideas progress from the brainstorming phase to development feels incredibly fulfilling. It’s empowering to know that the ideas from a handful of teens can make an impact on a community. The different pitches we gave in groups all contributed to the gamified resource that Childnet are now working on. Childnet was able to take things from every single idea and put them towards this one resource that we believe is the most helpful to children and young people. The Youth Advisory Board is very keen on continuing to help develop this idea, and hope that it can help countless children be safer online. In my personal opinion, gamification as a means to reach youth is very effective.
Critical thinking is the foundation to understanding reliability online. Algorithms and other moderation technologies are never foolproof, which stresses the importance of critical thinking, especially online, when things aren’t always as they seem. I want young people going online to know that not everything online is what it seems and when in doubt, to talk to a trusted adult.
