The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF virtual intervention. 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, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Hello, hello. Dear participants, greetings.
Hello everyone, happy to see so many familiar faces. And even more
happy to welcome those participants who are with us online as we are
fully hybrid for this year's IGF; and we are tremendously thankful to
the United Nations, DESA, and IGF Secretariat. And of course to our
amazing host country -- we have representative of the host country here
who is leading the preparations and ongoing discussions of the Youth
Summit, first ever Youth Summit, if I'm not confused, at least of this
scale.
We have with us our colleague Alim Harper from Center for digital --
for Global IT Cooperation. My name is Roman Chukov, I am outgoing MAG
member in the IGF. I've been working here for IGF three years, and it
was the best year I think so far because we eventually, after the
pandemic, had an opportunity to meet up in hybrid. And I hope that's
-- the pandemic will be overcome by next year. And of course, you
know, as Russia will be presiding in IGF in 2025, we will be happy to
see you all there in person.
Dear friends, we now witness a drastic change in our digital behavior
in our everyday life because more and more influence is being exposed
by the social media, by our digital services. And we just -- even now,
we speak online, and we want young people to be fully protected. This
is very important. Because when we were young, the technologies were
not so much developed, and we didn't have so many risks.
This is why we believe that the younger generation, who we are now,
should also be protecting the future generations, and even already now
bring store in how we should do it. Even in the Secretary General's
recent our common agenda, it was stated that it was very important to
take care of future generations.
So this is what we wanted to discuss today. We actually wanted to
give the floor to our amazing organisers of the IGF Youth Summit, to
Amelia. And how did it go?
Let us know what was the result, how young people contributed to
joint work.
Please, you have five minutes just to tell us about this amazing
experience. Thank you.
>> AMELIA (Poland): Hello. Okay. It's working. Fantastic. Thank
you very much for having me here, to for inviting me to speak a few
words here. Thank you for this opportunity.
So yeah, I am one of the members of the steering committee of Youth
IGF Poland; and together with two other youth initiatives this year, we
organised the Youth Summit. And the idea of this summit was something
that evolves from the consultations we were having last year with other
young people. And a lot of people brought up an issue that, you know,
we have this Youth Summit, we have the IGF, IGR, and there's a lot of
talking, but after that no so much happened.
So how we can make sure that our ideas are not just, you know -- we
are not just throwing them in the air. So actually the postulates, we
are making the message we are creating, they will be delivered to
somebody, to some stakeholder groups. So that's why we really wanted
to put in the central point how youth could become more included into
the policy making processes. Like how they could really have an
influence.
So that's how we came with the idea of the projective summit. We
wanted to start the preparations early. So our postulates would be
very much prepared. So we had an open call for applications. A lot of
people applied, and the level was really, really high. It was a very,
very hard choice. But we chose the best 80 people.
And they worked in eight groups on different field of governance.
And each group was led by the coordinator who was a -- from the youth
governance. I think in this project we had three really innovative
limits much like the first one is that we have started preparations of
summit today so early. So it took almost I think three months.
The second thing that it was the result of the work of not only one
initiative, but three of them. So I guess we just managed to gather
more perspectives into this project.
And the third one is that instead of messages we came up with the
idea of points of action. So something like wants to further. Each
point of action would answer to three questions.
The first one: What is the challenge we can observe in the
particular area of Internet governance.
The second one: What is the possible solution.
And the third one, and it go very important, to whom this point of
action is targeted. Like who could help young people in implementing
those ideas, those solutions.
Because you know usually young people, as young people we don't have
much power, much resources ourselves. So we just need the support of
other stakeholder groups, of other parties like private sector or
government, or some intergovernmental organizations. So that's why we
wanted the points of action to be targeted to (?).
And we had a great opportunity to present those points of action at
this Youth Summit. And what I think is the next step is just
delivering them as wide as possible. And delivering them to the people
they are addressed to.
So I guess that in the nutshell this would be the idea.
Thank you.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's give a huge
round of applause to our organisers.
(Applause)
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: You are not already for such situation.
Yes, it's great to hear when young people are creating opportunities
for organisation for other young people. And of course digital sphere
now gives us not only risks but also opportunities.
And this year also was an inaugural one for us in Russia where first
time ever withheld the first youth Russian IGF. As a part of NRIs, and
I think it would be great to know some very interesting consequences,
because our young people -- so finished the work with some youth
message, youth communique, action plan, I don't know, all different
names. And so the idea was to hold very, very practical approach and
try to implement such initiatives in reality.
So for instance, one of the ideas was to invite young people to have
their representative in digital sphere for communication with
governments, business, Civil Society organizations, universities, other
youth entities, NGOs, and we called it like digital youth ombudsperson,
ombudsman or ombudswoman, or just youth ombuds-team as it turned out in
our case, because with elected three people.
And that would be amazing if these people also can briefly comment
the results of their work.
I think that we can evenly show you some video. So please, the
acolytes can help us.
(Video).
(Video: ) (In language other than English).
(Speaking non-English language).
(Video pre-captioned)
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you very much. This was an
example of one of the initiatives from the Youth Russian Internet
Governance Forum, where you see there's already a website,
youthombudsman.ru.
You can check it. And what I wanted to do now, I wanted to give the
floor to these people who are very inspired and active in this sphere
of protecting youth and children rights online and creating relevant
opportunities among many, many opportunities which are happening now,
young people should be somehow helped, navigated.
And hopefully my colleagues will tell you how through their action
in our country they see it -- which you can do also in your countries,
because we believe it should be kind of open franchise so people can
just do the same, maybe through the IGF NRIs in their countries.
So I'm very honoured to give the floor to Dmitry Gulyaev, digital
youth ombudsperson of Russia.
>> DMITRY GULYAEV: Dear participants of the IGF, dear friends,
greetings from Moscow, my name is Dmitry Gulyaev, and I have been the
youth digital ombudsperson in Russia since April 2021. Here is a brief
introduction of what I do and the problems I tackle.
Every day children and youth around the world face violations of
their rights online. Such as cyber bullying, cyber grooming,
catphishing and so on. Sometimes young users do such things themselves
without realising that it is harmful or illegal.
The question is, where can young people go to be helped in guidance?
Many of them hesitate or fear to talk directly to psychologists or
teachers or even their parents. The virtual generations want a real
dialogue. A trusted person to discuss this issue with. This is how
the idea of the youth digital ombudsperson came into being.
Me and my team are young people who speak the same language as they
do. We share their concerns and face the same issues online. We do
not like chat. We use innovative and creative forms of dialogue. We
depend the rights and interests of young people online. And build
bridges between youth and over stakeholders, business, Civil Society,
the state, and international community to engage them in a dialogue on
topical issues that young people face into the digital sphere. We help
young people promote their IT projects, ideas and start-ups by giving
them an opportunity to present themselves. And participate in public
IT events.
And now I am asking my teammates to provide you with more details of
what we have achieved so far. Thank you.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you, very much, Dmitry. We ask
our colleagues to run the presentation for you so our colleagues can
comment. I don't know, should we -- Alim, are you clicking the slides?
Yeah. So just click it where it should be, and I am also very, very
welcoming Mr. Alexey Starikov who is from our (?) University, our
leading international affairs university.
And Alexey with us, can you please tell us how do you see your work?
>> ALEXEY STARIKOV: Can you hear me?
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Yes.
>> ALEXEY STARIKOV: Yeah, it's a pity that it was not possible for
me to participate offline, but I'm very glad to see everyone in Zoom.
So well, here is the overview of our work. Our team, as Dmitry
already mentioned, has only been active for six months. Quite a short
period of time. But we have already gained some considerable practical
experience, and we are eager to share it with you today.
We are proud to say that since April, we have managed to hold one
event almost every week. It was quite intense and engaging. Around
600 school children, students, their parents have participated in our
workshops, round tables and other interactive activities. And their
feedback was the best part of it.
Some of them said they hadn't really realised the possible impact
of -- or seriousness of their actions online. Others change their
attitude to certain problems such as cyber bullying.
We're also involved in expert discussions. The youth digital
ombudsperson has joined three expert council of various public
organizations, and taking parts in 20 experts and 10 major events with
a digital agenda. Including St. Petersburg, economic forum, and
eastern economic forum. So it's more than 30 in total.
In addition, we have an ambition to work in regions. You probably
know that Russia is a huge country and consists of 85 entities with
their own cultural peculiarities, traditions, and history. So given
these facts and the workloads, spreading the institute across Russia
actually seems to be a daunting task. However, we have already engaged
the representatives of seven Russian regions, both the administration
and young people themselves.
We have been to Krasnodar, varj ya (?) Hassen seas (?) And other
cities. And we are also trying to scale up by creating our own major
dialogue platforms.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a forum called the Internet for Youth
took place at Gimor (?) University; and more than 400 young people
along with top experts in public administration, IT, and business
discussed digital opportunities and risks for youth.
Thus we have joined the larger process of developing self regulation
on the Internet. And we are determined to make our own contribution.
However, let us not forget that our priority is defending the rights
and interests of young people online. And with this in mind we have
developed a special platform called "digital assistance" on our
website. I think it's going to be on the next slide.
Alim, could you please...change the slides for the presentation?
All right. This digital platform is meant to be a bridge between
young people who encounter rights violations in the digital
environment, and experts.
Experts, institutions and bodies that are ready to support them.
Everything is simple and intuitive. You need to fill in short online
form. The first step is to indicate the type of the problem you faced,
from cyber bullying to data protection. You can see all the topics at
the bottom of the slide.
And if none of them suits, you can choose other. And you describe
the situation, state how it affects your well being, and submit the
form.
If you don't want to disclose personal information, you can send your
message anonymously.
The message then will be analyzed and directed to a group of experts
who will give you step by step instructions on how to proceed best in
your situation and which relevant authorities you may contact to solve
the problem. And they can also give advice on what to do next and how
to avoid possible negative consequences.
Of course I have not described the -- all the activities of the youth
digital ombudsperson. But I hope that I managed to convince you that
our institution works hard and deserves the attention at the
international level. We are trying to use all of our strengths and
capabilities to share our experience with both national and
international society.
So we have a lot to share with you, and we are ready to absorb and
implement your best practices.
At this point I would like to let -- like to give the floor to my
colleague, Alim. Thank you.
>> ALIM HARPER (?): Hi, everyone. Can you hear me? I hope so.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who came to today's
session. Either online or here on-site in Katowice. It's really a
great honour to be a speaker at the IGF and especially discuss matters
of youth empowerment, as my colleagues and -- my colleagues from
Poland, from IGF summit and my colleagues from YDO, Youth Digital
Ombudsperson, mentioned before. We have a whole new track dedicated to
youth empowerment.
But while discussing the perspectives and future development of the
YDO institution at large, I think it is absolutely vital to go back to
the origins of this initiative. As YDO, youth digital ombudsperson
institution institute was established on the grounds of the first youth
Internet governance Russian forum.
As Roman mentioned before, it's a brand-new event that started out in
6 of April 2021. And is held annually as a part of large UN IGF
ecosystem or family, as we called it sometimes.
One of the main tracks of this forum, of our forum is youth
empowerment. Definitely. And I think it is our common goal just as
much as it is a point of action for all stakeholders, we -- within this
delicate and certainly crucial agenda, we strive to provide young
individuals like the ones who share -- who join us here today, with
opportunities, with real opportunities for personal and especially
professional growth in this new digital age.
Youth league, as in short we call it, is set as a bridge that unites
generations, countries, and communities across Russia and even beyond.
The next forum will be held on April 6, 2022. You're actually all
invited to it. We'll be glad to have such a massive participation from
international community, from all countries around the world.
And it will host several key tracks that I think are -- should be
priority areas for future IGFs as well, such as youth and child safety
on the Web, the future of jobs, metaverses, as we were surprised this
year with Zuckerberg's announcement. I think it's quite important to
discuss this issue, destructive content moderation, and a special
attention this year, next year will be given to cyber sports and
general perception and perspectives, prospects of e-gaming in our age.
In addition, there are certainly ambitious plans to establish a wider
brand, youth digital ombudsperson grant, a special award that would be
awarded for impact-oriented social, digital projects, and IT start-ups.
And thereby provide young individuals, talented individuals, not only
with information, but also financial support as a part of this
endeavor, YDO team tries to attract partners from the public, business,
and technical community to provide a full support for youth
initiatives.
All in all youth league is expanding, grown, it is becoming stronger
every year. Serving as a platform for young, agile, and those who are
ready for action.
The YDO institute is also on the path of scaling, as my colleague
mentioned, Alexey.
In the near future it is expected to expand in numerous regions of
Russia and go even further in ensuring protection and representation of
human rights on the Internet.
Now allow me to elaborate a little bit on the prospects of
international promotion of the YDO initiative.
So in 2021, the youth league, the result of the youth league was the
established by the youth digital ombudsperson and Youth Communique,
that was a collection of ideas, aspirations, and concepts from youth in
Russia that saw the development of digital environment and world in
general. And recommendations, some basic recommendations for
international organizations and international society at large.
And it is expected that by 2022 the idea, the very concept of
protection of rights of children, of youth, representation of youth,
and youth empowerment on the Web will go globally.
By the year 2022 we expect to scale the YDO institute internationally
to promote it more and more. So that more and more UN member states
can join this initiative and work together in this multistakeholder
approach. Because as Amelia here mentioned, we need to involve all
actors. Not just youth or government, but also public sector,
technical community. We need to have a dialogue with IT platforms. We
need to engage, and we need to involve youngsters and those who are
making decisions. Policy-makers, everyone who is interested, and
everyone who matters. And all we need of course is youth.
Yeah.
(Applause)
>> ALIM: Thank you very much. And if you have some questions after
the discussion or right, now we have a mic, you can ask them. Always
direct them to us, to any speakers.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you, thank you very much. Alim, Alexey and
Dmitry. You did great work. And we still have more than 30 minutes to
proceed with several online speakers from different corners of the
world. And also we will be happy if you or other participants in the
chat are requesting the floor. As Fred kindly advised in the chat.
And I'm tracking the chat just in case.
You can kindly write your questions there or hand -- raise your hand
in Zoom or here when we come to the stage of beginning.
So shall we try to move to other regions experience and aspirations.
I don't know if Jenny, she is already with us. Who is a quite active
young person from Latin America.
Jenny, do you hear us? Let us hear and see you.
>> JENNY CHINCHILLA: Good morning.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Hello. Can you tell us --
>> JENNY CHINCHILLA: It's a good morning here.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you. Sorry that we are speaking
to you at so early hour in Latin America.
But kindly tell us what young people there know, want, and dream
about in the digital sphere; why do you think we should protect youth
and childre;n online, and how to ensure that youth have more
possibilities; and how to tackle the risks. Please.
>> JENNY CHINCHILLA: Thank you so much. As I told you, it's in
morning here, but I'm happy to be here in this forum. I am Jenny
Chinchilla from El Salvador, I am a woman with a disability. El
Salvador is in Latin America, Central America, to be specific.
And so I'm a user of a wheelchair. And I feel the importance about
Internet access more in this pandemic context for everything.
For children, for young people. The condition of Internet, to be
online with so many, that is important. And but at the same time it's
a double tooth for so many things because puts at risk young people,
but the other time, give us a lot of tools and knowledge to be -- to
access at the study, work, opportunity, et cetera.
But as a woman with disability, I consider the necessity of
protecting all youth online.
Not just in our region, in different regions, including in my region.
But it's Latin American.
Why it's important, because at the same time we have access to
Internet, to be online, but we need to put in order also the
information and the access. Because enrich people and young people
also.
But I support the idea, I support the idea to be for example -- I
don't dish don't pronounce this very exactly this word, but per person
in country. I don't say if that's the word, but put in order as people
to be expecting and to be in the making decisions on Internet.
And I think, please, don't put ahead no more outside people with
disability, youth with disability, youth with disability, we are not a
problem. We want to be part of the solution.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you. Muchas gracias, Jenny.
>> JENNY CHINCHILLA: Thank you. Muchas gracias.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: We are so happy that you are with us. And again,
this is a very, very important part of holding all these events of the
IGF in hybrid. As you see, we can connect to different corners of the
world, and this is truly inspiring. Because recently, in previous
years, maybe we did not really appreciate it that much, because we knew
that we can travel.
But it's important. And actually, yes, as Jenny also underlined the
necessity to keep young people with disabilities online with the same
amount of opportunities, this is exactly the Internet. And hopefully
Internet can be safe and giving opportunities for young people and
children.
And let us now move back to Russia where several greatest companies
have launched together an alliance of -- on protection of children
online in the digital sphere.
And our dear colleague, Oleg Osrutiv, is with us.
Oleg, do you hear us? Can you tell us about your work? How do
you -- why did you create the alliance?
What is on your agenda; how can you help in protecting children and
youth on line? Please.
>> I hope you can hear me well. And thank you, IGF; and good day to
all the participants..
My name is Oleg; I work at Kaspersky. It is my honor to be here
today to represent the Alliance for Children's Safety in Digital
Environments from actually an unusually cold Moscow, even in December
it's freezing out there.
So the real question is why do we need to talk about children's
safety if young people right here in this room, or young people we talk
about when you talk about young generation, are in fact the first true
generation of digital natives.
I have once asked my 16 years old daughter if she remembers the world
without the Internet, and of course she doesn't. For as long as she
remembers, connectivity has always been an important part of her life,
and Googling is a skill now.
So indeed the Internet has brought tremendous benefits to the
generation of digital natives, it has changed the way young people
communicate, changed the way we study, the way we or they interact with
the world. Of course it opens up new avenues for self expression, self
actualization, creating new jobs, new hobbies, and in time the new
global communities.
But what it also has created is a digital world that would be often
unfamiliar to the parents of these young people. Like to us.
The physical world we live in, for instance, has some inbuilt
security measures aimed at protecting kids.
We have, for instance, we have special road signs in front of
schools, we have age restrictions for alcohol consumption or adult
content; and we only let young people drive cars after a certain age
and after a long training.
So in short, the entire societies help us as parents and as young
citizens to navigate our life in the physical world safely. And this
is not exactly the case in the digital domain.
So you may have truly talented personalities on TikTok, YouTube and
Instagram, but in addition to those guy, the digital and talented girls
and everyone else, the digital world is inhabited by fraudsters,
extortionists, sexual predators and scammers. They are normally only a
few clicks away.
Serving the Web on unsuspecting kids may stumble upon pornographic
content or violent content without a warning or with a warning that is
easy to ignore and bypass. So the threats our kids, you guys, you
girls, you young generation face online such as cyber bullying or the
so-called sexual bullying are much greater than anything any previous
generation may have faced within the walls of a traditional school or
within the communities they're living. And these issues are taking a
heavy, heavy toll on the youth psychological health and well being.
So it is this, again, concern about safety and health and well being
of our own kids that brought together the leading Internet telecom and
media companies of Russia to create an alliance for children safety in
digital environments earlier this year. The alliance we are self
regulating industry budget that works together with representatives of
the Civil Society, NGOs, academia, government, to help create a digital
environment, digital spaces where younger generation can grow, learn,
develop and express themselves safely. And where we guarantee
accessibility, inclusivity, and equality for all those newcomers and
younger generation.
We are not unique, of course. Similar alliances work across the
globe. For instance European alliance to better protect minors online
was established in 2017 with the same concerns in mind and not Monday
European body CO coalition to make a better Internet for kids brings
together the companies mitt committed to making Internet safer for
minors. Another example could be the initiative of administrative --
Vietnam or cyber security of Singapore and other countries genuinely
concerned about the issue. In these areas we can tap into the -- such
as for instance UNICEF and ITUs join guidelines for industry onion line
child protection and OA city council on children and the digital
environment. Where we somewhat differ is that we are looking to build
an environment where rules are created through dialogue with the entire
society.
Not just outsourced to the rule makers or to the industry self
regulation or to the industry bodies.
We are talking about questions like ethics, morals, well being,
safety, traditions, innovations. And these are all things that need to
be discussed in a broader group of people.
So in our first project, the volumetry digital ethics charter
contains five core principles that we believe are important. That
includes respecting individual rights of a child, share responsibility
for digital health and well being of children, confidentiality, and
personal data protection of minors; inclusivity and accessibility, I
have heard from the conversation today that this is an important issue
that we need to address; and of course mutual respect of shared values
and different culture.
So we believe that safer digital space require us that we altogether
as parents, as businesses, as teacher, as all these persons, as
developers, as regulators, as volunteer and as users, in short, as
members of the more digital societies that we work together to make
this world safer. And this is why we invite like minded organizations
in Russia to support the charter by voluntarily agreeing to follow the
simple ethical principles when working with kids and adults.
We only need to notify through a form on our website. It could be
found on the page Internet for kids.RU/charter. We're proud to have
many signatories already as well as many members of our consultancy
board, like youth Internet presence here. And we're also calling the
global technology and media companies to consider joining the alliance
since in the digital world there are no borders. What we probably need
is a little more of safe space. For our youngest, most vulnerable, and
yes, most important users.
Thank you.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you very much, Oleg. This is a
tremendous initiative and we hope this experience can be shared and
widely explored by other private sector stakeholders globally. Because
again, what can be more important than the sustainable, safe and
prosperous life of future generations. And in order to keep them safe
and promote digital technologies which would serve the community, help
us realise even more potential, this is of course important to start
from the early age. And it's a great, great honour to see that so huge
and well known companies from Russia united, the efforts, this is just
amazing.
You know that the main -- the best initiatives are those convened
from the grassroot level, or in our case one business who understand
their audience that these are also their future clients and future
employees, team members, they are already now trained to make this
bridge to their safe childhood, and then of course they are entering
the adult life.
And I don't know if David Otujor Okpatuma from Nigeria is already
online with us.
>> DAVID OTUJOR OKPATUMA: Yes, I am, Roman.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Excellent. David, please let us know how do you
find those initiatives and ideas which were just outlined by previous
speakers?
What is the African Union example on how do you work with young
people in the digital sphere. What do you think about those
initiatives like digital youth ombudspeople globally?
>> DAVID OTUJOR OKPATUMA: Thank you so much, Roman, for such a
question.
And bringing forth from what previous speakers have said, it is no
doubt the digital space needs to be inclusive as possible. Carrying
and bearing in mind that everybody, every group of people, every
demography needs to be protected, safe, and secure in the digital
space.
So as regards Africa and the requirements for an ombudsman,
ombudspeople, it is without mincing words that sometime some of the
accountability mechanisms for governments and institutions globally now
are more digital than they are analog. And we need people, especially
young people who are adept, with the technology, devices and choice,
and have enough mastery and objectivity to navigate such terrains and
represent the diverse groups of people in all fairness and safety.
Typical cases as we have in some Nigerian societies today, or some
African societies today is that we see the censorship, we see the
control and regulation unfairly so of government over digital spaces.
And some of the complaints that young people or even communities have
made to this regard are not fairly represented, risen to be since the
latter crop of the people, risen the complaints by young people. Most
government agencies feel they need to thwart the progressiveness of
such complaints of such checks, of such issues that are being raised as
regards the complaints handling or the -- or the check -- or the checks
and balances that are being introduced by young people.
So inasmuch as this is a very vital topic to delve into, we need to
understand that some parts of the world we have so much
marginalization, especially in parts of Africa where we have fewer
people who are able to access the Internet space to begin with. And if
we are seeing policies of governments and of institutions being
digitalized, then we know that a lot of people are left behind in that
pursuit.
And we need to ensure that we have young people who understand, like
Roman said, the local context and are able to interpret some of these
policies sooner that are the most understaffed communities and people,
to come to a place of higher and better responsibility; and ensure that
there is proper accountability, there's proper dynamics when it comes
to the mechanisms of harnessing the digital space and ensuring that
people from everywhere are able to be represented, to be protected, and
their complaints handled within the right quarters and within time
frame without the fear of being dominated or controlled by governments
or agencies, or the giant or big tech companies globally.
That's what I have to say in that regard. Thank you so much, Roman.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you very much, David.
And it's really important that we already took into consideration of
people from different regions and hopefully with all of you those who
are interested to join this work and continue this global movement, we
can all just come back and start to act every day. And hopefully
that's in conjunction with all organising partners of the Youth Summit.
We can start to organise this process maybe by using the timeline which
Alim and colleagues proposed.
Everything is moving in the world, you never know where you will be
next week. And I want to say that most surely I can tell you that
young people and youth will be the priority track for the Russia's
presidency in 2025. So we have several years to prepare and to show
the result. Maybe again as was illustrated in your plan.
But let's see how it works.
And UN is really the place for all of us. And it is changing. It
hears young people; like last year it was amazing experience with UN 75
process. And as far as we know, maybe even same people, if I'm not
confusing, but will do the same sort of feedback election for the
recent Secretary General's initiative on creating global digital
compact.
So as far as I understand, this is a sort of attempt to have the
unified rules of the game in the Internet space.
And let's just make happen that young people are the key pillar of
this document, of this process.
So I think we have a lot of things to do. As far as I understand,
there will be a future summit -- again, because it's for future
generations -- in September 2023, if I'm not confusing.
And we still have time to do good work.
Dear colleagues, we still have some time. And please kindly raise
your hand in Zoom or on-site, raise your questions. Let us know your
feelings of what has been said. And as far as I see, our speakers also
want to have a couple of remarks.
>> ALIM: Just a couple remarks. Thanks, Roman.
Roman I think just mentioned a very important question because, as he
mentioned, there will be a 20th anniversary IGF in Russia in 2025. And
it is a strategic year for UN IGF and I would like to support Roman's
belief that youth empowerment track will become one of the main
priorities of the forum.
And I'm pretty sure it will lead to a global -- to this year it will
lead to a global YDO network of youth digital ombudspersons. And joint
international effort by all UN member states.
And of course we expect multistakeholder approach and full
cooperation in that regard.
Probably expecting also a global YDO summit in 2025, the year of IGF.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: That's quite ambitious.
I don't know, Amelia, would you support such idea? You can just
speak.
>> AMELIA: And it's even when I turn it off. Thank you. Yeah, let
me...yeah. I think that I absolutely support, and I'm very, very glad
to hear that for Russia, as organiser of the IGF 20 -- 2025 -- thank
you -- the youth track will be a priority. I guess it's a wonderful
idea.
And I just wanted to add that we -- as we have this honour to
organise this year's Youth Summit, we are very open to cooperation. We
don't want to stop here like the Youth Summit happened this year. But
I think a lot of very, very talented young people have gathered
together, and it would be really bad to let it go. So we are very open
to the cooperation, to building upon this year's Youth Summit. To our
day of summiting at Ethiopia, Tokyo, then I think Asia, and then in
Russia. So yeah. I really hope that we can go this path together.
And it will be amazing.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you very much.
As you all know, there is so-called NRI, National Regional Youth
Initiative of the IGF. And Russian youth Internet Governance Forum
just this year became one of them. So again, if you still do not do it
in your country, just consider this as a green light, because young
people deserve to have a platform.
It might be fully online event. We just, you know, can notify
universities, high schools, and those who are interested can join. If
in the beginning you cannot find some partners and sponsors. But we
hope that private sector, technical community, government, stakeholder
groups can protect and promote such initiative for young people.
And now, as we still have ten minutes, dear colleagues on-site or
online, please raise your hands if you want to ask any question or
share your experience in the IGF in Poland.
Please raise your hand if this was your first IGF. Oh, my goodness.
This is a majority.
It means that throughout years the new wave came into the space.
Makes me very enthusiastic.
Will you -- IGF or the forum -- okay. Let's have it this way.
With -- will you come to Poland again?
(Chuckling)
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: No, they're just shy. I see a very -- like I would
say firm half of the audience.
Online audience, you can also raise your hands. We want to take your
voice also in consideration.
But will you come to next IGF? I believe it will be in Ethiopia.
Not sure. But okay, in any case we all will be ready to participate
online. So do you want to ask a question? Please.
Come here. Introduce yourself.
>> ROMAN (Azerbaijan): Well, without mask it really works. I'm
Roman, you know, by chance. I'm coming from Azerbaijan. It works? Do
you listen?
Yeah.
I'm here and represent youth department Council of Europe. And you
know majority of here as I see -- I believe they have been fighting for
young people. But I believe they are actually young. What I'm really
interested as -- you know, we are talking so -- I mean different topics
like you know access to technologies, access to different -- different
level of capacities, raising awareness and et cetera. But I'm really
interested in way how much you are representing decision-making
processes. You know, we have so many people here, and we have so much
ideas. But are we able to implement them and are we decision-makers in
this process? We have so many panelists here, the audience maybe they
can answer this question. But I'm really interested if it's the case
that you participate in decision-making processes in a way that you
want implement your ideas and projects.
This is the first question, actually.
I --
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Who? Who do you address it?
>> ROMAN: To all the panelists and even audience if they want to.
Can I have the second question or later?
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: I think let's take it one by one. Audience, do you
want to answer?
>> AMELIA: This is actually very good question. I think that you
just touched something which is like a central thing, because okay,
it's great to have ideas, but what if nobody makes them happen?
So yeah, I think that it is something I also talked about by talking
about our initiative of the project of summit is to creating solutions
that are targeted to the very, very specific people, companies,
governments. So you know, you -- for example you have, I don't know,
let me just take something -- you see that people in our region, the
school children in your region they don't have access to digital
education because a lot of them don't have ICTs.
So and you know that there's a company that draws away -- throws away
thousands of laptops every year because they are just buying new ones.
And you have this idea, maybe those company could give those laptops to
the -- to those children.
So it's an example of the solution that first of all, is very
specific, and has a very specific target, which is this company.
I know it is not the exactly policy-making thing, because it is not
on the level of the law regulation, but this is just example how I
think it should work.
So if you want to have your solution implemented, you have to just
advocate, you have to deliver it to the right person. The one who
could actually help you in implementing it. So for example to the
particular parliamentarians or to particular private companies.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Your second question, please.
>> ROMAN: Okay. The second question is you know, like in last five
days I participate in more than ten sessions, and it was interesting
discussions regarding, you know, access, literacy, ICTs, AI, Internet
technologies, et cetera. What I'm really interested in is the concrete
solutions that we can give to reach the goals that we set.
I mean, as a young people and I'm actually working on this topic
exactly, digital use work. I have research on it and I'm really
interested in way that how do you see the solutions in order to reach
the goals that, like for example we talk right now online people, you
know, talking and discussing around that.
So I would like to have like really concrete like one or two steps
that you believe that will be really priority to make sure that young
people really participate and young people really have access to
technology and Internet. Yeah. Thank you so much.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you very much. We still have
five minutes. We are okay to grab one more question. We hope to have
one more guest joining us in person now for concluding remarks.
So anyone to ask any question?
Or please...introduce yourself. Say where from. And your question
and to who you address it.
>> INNOCENT RODRIGO: All right. Mine is not a question. Mine is
just an encouragement. I can see so many people in the room, my name
is Innocent Rodrigo, I'm from Uganda, I coordinate the youth IGF. It's
a pleasure to be here.
One thing -- I've been in so many sessions, and I'm glad to say that
I've seen so many young people bring up solutions, bring up ideas..
But one thing I realised is that these solutions are going to need to
be localized to the contexts of our regions. And countries. Yeah?
For example, I do realise that whereas some countries are going to
start -- I look at it like a line that has 1 to 10. Whereas some
people are starting from 2, going up, some people are still on zero.
Okay, maybe it's not zero, but maybe 1. And some people at, let's say,
5. Yeah?
So how do we see that we can catch up with the ones who are ahead
yesterday. Yesterday I was in session and telling people how in Uganda
schools have been closed for two years. Yeah. How are you going to
catch up with the rest of the world?
Yeah. So that's a loophole. Yeah?
So then another thing is if I look in the room here, I don't know
that we have any youth who is involved in policy making. Maybe you can
just raise up your hand?
Yeah. It's good to see some. But I must admit that some sessions
have not had any. How are they going to get these issues? Like
because what I know is, well, in our national IGF, for example, usually
-- for example Uganda youth IGF, we had the president senior advisor on
youth affairs.
Why I got him there was because I knew at least he can be able to
take into account some of these issues that we discuss. Some of the
outcomes of the IGF.
So let the IGF not end here. We need to see that whatever discuss,
whatever outcomes we have, able to reach to the right, people at the
right time for implementation. Yeah.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you very much. We have just been
joined by the most important person for the NRIs, it's Anja Gengo from
IGF Secretariat, who literally supports all the initiatives globally,
from Civil Society, young people. And it's wonderful, wonderful friend
of mine. Thank you for joining us.
Before the concluding remarks, and you maybe wish to participants to
develop their youth tracks. Let us give the floor for one minute to
Fred from our online participants. He was raising a hand.
>> AAZORE (GHANA): Hello everyone. Thank you very much for giving
me the opportunity to speak. Yes. I must admit, this session has been
great and interactive considering the various ideas that have been
speculated by some of the youth, especially the ones that project the
timelines from this time all the way to 2025. I think it's quite an
ambition and it is achievable. It is achievable first of all to
collaboration, and it is achievable first of all by being specific.
In achieving one goal at a time.
Yes, Amelia gave an example which indicates that -- a specific
example, let me say, that there are companies that have computers, that
use it for a period of time and disposes it, are able to repurpose it
to help some aspect of the digital literacy that we are looking at.
Now, if we work together to be able to initiate solutions as youth,
it is having a lot of impact in the communities. The persons that came
to speak at the microphone, one of them mentioned that how do we
localize the solutions?
And so I believe all of us are coming from different backgrounds,
working together, can bring these different views together.
Whether it's, online platform or -- the simple solution is working
together and targeting one goal at a time. Thank you.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you very much, Fred. And yes. Big round of
applause.
(Applause)
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: I must admit it's perfect timing. And if Anja can
kindly give us some concluding remarks and tell maybe how you find this
year's youth track and this first ever youth IGF and how -- what is the
vision of development of youth track further among other NRIs. The
floor is yours.
>> ANJA GENGO: Thank you so much. It's so nice to join you here.
I'm sorry I missed the biggest part of this session, which is also very
close to my heart for personal reasons. There's a main session of the
NRIs just downstairs, so I was rushing up, but I had to be there.
Thank you to my dear friend Roman for organising this session and
inviting me.
I think a colleague from Ghana that just spoke said very good words,
saying that you don't maybe see young people in the areas that are
impacting the policy decisions. And it's just quite the opposite from
my side, I have to say. But I do understand why you said that. It's
the opposite because through the youth IGF it's just impressive the way
they are basically making their own way to reach the decision-makers,
to become decision-shapers, to impact those that are making concrete
decisions.
And I think we're joining national, regional and youth IGFs in your
countries, in your regions is a very effective way to be part of
creating a possible solution on a certain manner on Internet
governance. There are 141 NRIs, that's how we call them shortly. And
I think all of you regardless where you live you will be able to find
one where you can connect to.
I can testify from my personal experience, and I'm sure Roman and I
see Amelia here, they will back me up, those are very friendly
networks. Or really high level experts in terms of the knowledge just
that exists there.
But also those are very good networking opportunities. So that's
always my encouragement to you, to start from your own homes. You
don't need to travel anywhere to be part of the global solutions.
And I think that's something that we should maybe take as a message
from this wonderful session.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you. Thank you very much.
We will definitely sum up this session with the reports, we send it
to the Secretariat, to other UN entities, other global stakeholders
including business, technical community, governments of course.
Because several important ideas for our clients here including the very
specific and detailed action plan of finding good young people for
representing the youth in the digital sphere, digital youth
ombudspeople. Ombuds-teams.
And we even discuss with organisers of the Youth Summit that maybe we
can gather all outputs of the youth led sessions of the forum,
including the Youth Summit messages. And do some interesting
infographics or document. Very specific ideas and timeline so that
young people can actually understand why we gather here, what is the
plan and how do you plan to bring this forward. What do you think?
If you support this idea, let's raise the hands. Wonderful.
Do you mind if we conclude the session? Or anyone has any final
word, remark? The speakers?
>> AMELIA: Just one sentence. Let's just make youth involvement
trending.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Thank you.
Alim.
>> ALIM: Let's support Internet united. Always united.
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Excellent. Thank you so much our online
participants, our technical team, our organisers from across the world.
Online speakers, participants, on-site participants, let's try to do
collective photo.
Of course with wearing masks. And I see some of you are wearing
masks from the Centre for Global IT Cooperation from our booth. It's
very encouraging, because if you noticed we did it as the name of our
session. And I will demonstrate now.
Because what? Because all we need is Youth.
Thank you for participation. And I kindly invite you to stand here,
and our online participants to switch on camera so we can also screen
shot a collective one. Please. Thank you.
(Applause)