Earlier this year, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) launched a UK-wide consultation to understand how children, young people and families can be better supported in a rapidly evolving online world. The work explored young people’s experiences across social media, gaming, emerging technologies and AI, to inform future government policy on online safety and digital wellbeing.
To ensure the consultation reflected the real experiences of young people, DSIT commissioned a consortium including Savanta and the #iWill Movement (powered by Volunteering Matters and UK Youth). Together, we facilitated meaningful opportunities for young people, parents, carers and practitioners to share their insights.
The consultation brought together two key routes for young people to take part: national surveys designed by Savanta and DSIT, and a programme of youth co-led Hack events delivered by the #iWill Movement across seven cities – Belfast, Newcastle, Caerphilly, Ipswich, Brighton & Hove, Gloucester and Edinburgh.
Hundreds of young people took part, at the height of exam season, to share their honest experiences and ideas. Youth Collaborators, recruited from our network of #iWill Ambassadors, were at the heart of this approach, helping to shape ideas, co-design Hack activity and support delivery. Their involvement ensured young people’s insights moved beyond participation alone and helped inform the consultation’s final findings.
A full Growing Up Online report has been published, alongside a youth-friendly version of the findings.
You can find our statement on the Publication of the Growing Up Online Report here.
Martim
What’s been your role in the Online World Safety consultation, and where do you feel you’ve made the most impact?
My role as a Youth Collaborator has been to design, lead and participate in the research we have been doing with young people across the country. I think the most impact I have made has been in encouraging debate and facilitating critical thinking. I think it can be easy for people to be unwilling to hear alternative opinions and I’ve tried to focus on stopping that from happening.
What do you enjoy most about being a youth collaborator?
I most enjoyed hearing how in touch the young people are with technology today. It was clear that they had taken the time to learn how algorithms and AI work and how this impacts the world around them.
Tell us about yourself and what motivates you
I am a student and youth social activist from Oxford, based at the University of Warwick. My motivation has been in playing a part in making sure the voice of the youth is not lost in this conversation which affects them so personally and drastically.
Rachel
What’s been your role in the Online World Safety consultation, and where do you feel you’ve made the most impact?
As a youth collaborator I have helped gather evidence directly from young people about what would make the most difference for them in the online world.
What do you enjoy most about being a youth collaborator?
The thing I have enjoyed most is traveling all across the UK and working with young people to express views that they often wouldn’t have the opportunity to express.
Tell us about yourself and what motivates you?
I have been involved in the online safety space for the past 8 years now. I began on a local cyber bullying campaign set up to change local council policy and ensure young people were consulted. This has sparked my passion and determination to fight for legislation which directly reflects the views of young people as they are the experts on what it is like to grow up online.
Melvin
What’s been your role in the Online World Safety consultation, and where do you feel you’ve made the most impact?
As a Youth Collaborator, I co-designed and facilitated youth hack events across the UK, helping create spaces where young people could share their experiences and ideas about social media and online safety. I’m most proud of helping ensure those conversations were thoughtful, balanced and fed directly into the consultation’s evidence.
What do you enjoy most about being a youth collaborator?
What I’ve enjoyed most is helping create spaces where people can explore complex issues together. Too often, debates about technology happen to young people rather than with them. It was rewarding to see participants challenge assumptions, learn from one another and develop thoughtful, evidence-informed perspectives.
Tell us about yourself and what motivates you?
I’m interested in how technology, policy and governance come together to shape society. What motivates me is finding better ways for people and communities to influence the technologies that affect their lives, so that innovation is guided by the public interest as much as technological progress.
Eva
What’s been your role in the Online World Safety consultation, and where do you feel you’ve made the most impact?
My role has been to work with my fellow #iWill ambassador youth collaborators to design the hack events to give young people their say on some of the most important policy decisions being made about our lives right now. As a young person from Northern Ireland, I have brought our unique regional perspective into these discussions and I feel as though this has been a very impactful contribution. I also feel like I’ve been able to make impact in discussing the unique experiences of women and girls in online spaces and to provide my perspective of being a neurodivergent youth activist ensuring there was space within the activities at hack events for these experiences to be discussed.
What do you enjoy most about being a youth collaborator?
As a youth collaborator I have enjoyed being able to advocate to the best of my ability for youth voice to be included at every stage of this consultation, and to have had this opportunity to work with my fellow youth collaborators, who are all incredible!
Tell us about yourself and what motivates you?
I have just finished my first year at University, I have been an #iWill ambassador since 2022. I am a very passionate youth activist, and I am motivated to create a more equal and equitable world for all. I am a dedicated advocate for gender equity and equality and rights for women and girls, and work to tackle misogyny is a huge part of my activism at the moment and is my key motivation. I believe that no decisions about young people can be made without us and our perspectives, and this motivated me throughout this role also.
Diana
What’s been your role in the Online World Safety consultation, and where do you feel you’ve made the most impact?
As one of eight Collaborators selected from across the UK, I’ve been working as an youth advisor, researcher and facilitator on the Government’s Growing Up in the Online World consultation. Where I feel I’ve made the most impact is in bringing my experience across community engagement, research and public policy into the consultation. It’s been rewarding to contribute to a process that places young people’s voices at the centre of conversations about the future of online safety.
What do you enjoy most about being a youth collaborator?
What I’ve enjoyed most is the opportunity to contribute to policymaking in a genuinely collaborative way. Working alongside researchers, organisations and fellow Collaborators has reinforced the value of bringing together professional expertise and young people’s lived experiences to explore one of the most important challenges facing our generation.
I particularly enjoy the research and engagement aspects of the role – facilitating conversations with young people, hearing a wide range of perspectives and contributing to the analysis of the evidence gathered through the consultation. It has reinforced my belief that meaningful youth participation isn’t just about being consulted; it’s about ensuring young people have a genuine role in shaping the decisions and policies that affect their lives.
Tell us about yourself and what motivates you?
I’m a policy and research professional working across equality, human rights and public policy. My work focuses on conducting research, engaging communities and translating evidence into practical policy recommendations.
What motivates me is helping ensure that young people and communities have a meaningful role in shaping the decisions that affect their lives. I believe the strongest policy is grounded in both evidence and lived experience, and that’s what continues to drive my work across research, public policy and community engagement.
