Back in April, we told you about Internet Citizens, a Creators for Change program designed to help young people get the most out of YouTube and the wider web, and enable positive experiences online.
 |
| Yvette Cooper MP, Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, joins YouTube CEO. Susan Wojcicki and Creator for Change, Humza Arshad at London’s Internet Citizens Workshop. |
Every day we see your creativity shine on YouTube and frankly, we marvel at your panache in tackling all manner of subjects, some pretty tough. You take on stereotypes with style, like Dina Tokio and counter negativity with comedy, like Humza Arshad.
But we also know it’s not always easy and that you can face challenges online. We’ve all come across comments or content online that’s shocked or even offended us, sometimes leaving us feeling isolated or powerless to change the conversation.
That’s why - along with YouTube creator Nadir Nahdi of BENI, Alain “Fusion” Clapham and Efe Ezekiel - we’ve travelled the country running workshops to explore the issues you’re facing and provide practical support on how to handle them. Nadir says it best: “we aim to give young people the knowhow and confidence to assert themselves, tell their own stories and thrive online.”
From how to deal with offensive speech, to learning how to think critically about what you see online, and using tools like flagging and comment moderation, we’ve covered a lot of ground with the 500 young people we’ve met so far and sparked a lot of creativity on the way.
Thanks to great feedback (and high demand!), today we’re pleased to announce we’re bringing the Internet Citizens programme to 20,000 more of you in the UK, through workshops, youth workers and schools. We’re also going to make our curriculum, developed with many fantastic partners including ISD (Institute for Strategic Dialogue), UK Youth and Livity, available to everyone through our Internet Citizens site in August.
We set out with the goal of inspiring you but as ever, you’ve inspired us. We’re looking forward to meeting more of you over the next months and continuing the work of Internet Citizens - to make a better, more positive web, for everyone.
Naomi Gummer
HEAD OF PUBLIC POLICY, GOOGLE UK