You[th] have the power to make choices

There are two ways to get involved with the Youth Manifesto initiative:

• The first is to contribute with your ideas on what would make a better internet to help to create the Youth Manifesto. You can also vote on the proposals of others;
• The second is to create and share a resource or several resources expressing your ideas for a better internet in the resource competition. Six winners will be selected to travel to Brussels to present their ideas to European decision makers.

Creating the Youth Manifesto

The first strand of this initiative is the proposal of ideas on what would make a better internet for the future – these ideas will be used to create a Youth Manifesto for Europe. Youth in each of the 31 European countries of the Insafe network are invited to submit their ideas online, and discuss, debate and vote on the ideas that they think are the most relevant. The national-level discussion will close at the end of June 2014, at which point a European-level youth panel will review all proposals submitted from across the network and discuss, debate and refine the ideas to compile a ‘short list’ of approximately 30 proposals for further discussion and debate. Young people from across Europe will be able to vote on the ideas over the summer months – the top 10 proposals with the most votes will form the final Youth Manifesto which will be launched at a high-level event in February 2015.

The timetable for this strand is as follows: 

Resource exchange

The second strand of the initiative is a resource exchange. We invite young people to create a ‘resource' or ‘resources' (such as a video, poster, or even a song or poem) to express your idea(s) for a better internet, and upload it to the Resource gallery - be as imaginative and creative as you like. Teachers, youth leaders and other young people can then use your creation to trigger more ideas. Teachers are also welcome to submit resources for creating a better internet (lesson plans, blogs, videos etc), but that these are not eligible for the competition. Their aim will be to inspire young people and to help them shape their ideas for a better internet.

This aspect will work as follows:

• Visitors to the site will view and vote on the resource(s) – this will count for 50 per cent of the final score.
• Scores will be combined to identify the top six winning resources.
• The creators of the top six winning resources (and an accompanying teacher) will be invited to present their ideas to high-level decision makers in the EP and to attend the Safer Internet Forum (SIF) in Brussels, in November 2014. All travel and accommodation costs will be paid.