Empowering Youth to Safely Navigate the Digital World

• In Event: Envisioning Education in a Digital Society: A Focus on Digital Repression in Conflict-Affected Settings

Proposal

A key focus of this paper is on digital literacy initiatives for empowering young people to recognize and respond to digital threats, such as misinformation, disinformation, cyberbullying, online sexual exploitation, and gender-based violence. These efforts are part of an overarching Digital Strategy for Protecting Children and Youth from Digital Harm which aims to raise awareness and share knowledge across donor agencies while implementing prevention strategies to address digital repression potential by employing key strategic priorities to address these harms. One successful example discussed is the "Learn to Discern in Schools" media literacy pilot, where middle school students were taught how to critically evaluate the information they consume via social media and television. Media literacy lessons were integrated into traditional history, literature, and arts courses in 50 public schools across four cities, empowering students to recognize disinformation and become more informed future voters and leaders. Other key consideration for digital literacy interventions are to assessment youth digital literacy levels. As such, we begin by evaluating the digital literacy of the target audience, which can be done through surveys or interviews to identify the devices, platforms, and digital tools they frequently use. We recognize that digital literacy levels vary significantly, consider segmenting interventions to address different skill levels in curricula. Finally, we discuss the digital literacy to contextualize user needs. To achieve this the paper treats the need to ensure digital literacy programs are designed to meet the specific needs of diverse youth segments, including highlighting the importance of intersectionality. What this means is different groups of children and youth such as migrant children, LGBTQIA+ youth and boys versus girls often each require customized learning approaches to keep then safe during the learning process. Notably, tailored interventions for girls and young women can help address the gender digital divide and reduce risks of online gender-based violence. Mentorship programs are especially valuable, offering young women role models to guide their digital literacy journey. These various examples and approaches will be presented and discussed in session.

Author

• Marc B Sommers, International Consultant (Self-Employed)