(Read this page in Welsh - Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Cymraeg)
The Voice of Online Youth is a group of 14 young people, aged 13-17, from across the UK. They're passionate about helping children to have safe and happy experiences online.
The group has a strategic role at the NSPCC, helping to ensure that young people's voices are heard and that their perspectives are taken into account.
They help and advise the NSPCC and wider online safety sector on what matters most to them.
Their activities include:
- sharing their views and ideas with key decision makers at the NSPCC and industry leaders in the online world.
- defining their own priorities for keeping children safer online and developing solutions to realise these goals.
- championing the voices and experiences of young people through campaigning activity, hosting and attending key online safety events and taking part in press and comms.
Meet the Voice of Online Youth
Elodie, 15, County Down
Emily, 14, West Midlands
Finn, 15, East Dunbartonshire
James J, 15, North Somerset
James T, 17, Armagh
Leo, 16, London
Liidia, 14, Glasgow
Malia, 16, West Midlands
Mika, 17, Midlands
Rayhaan, 18, Leicestershire
Shalom, 14, Bolton
Tiffany, 17, Devon
Will, 15, Nottinghamshire
Zara, 15, Birmingham
Our Manifesto for Change
We’re the NSPCC’s Voice of Online Youth, a group of 14 young people aged 14-17 from across the UK. We’re here to create a future where every child’s experience online is a positive one. Our generation’s voices must be heard.
Since April 2024, we have been developing our innovative manifesto for change, which sets out our 5 priorities.
These will:
- Mean we can press for action in areas such as safety, privacy, and education.
- Make sure young people are represented.
- Give us a prominent role in decision making, awareness raising, and regulation of the online world.
- Make sure that the internet remains an uplifting and positive space for young people.
We chose these 5 priorities because we believe that they are the most relevant concerns for our generation. We also believe that these are the areas where things really need to change.
We’ll work by meeting with key decision makers, supported by the NSPCC and the people they work with. They’ll help us achieve our priorities, creating the changes that we need to see.
The problems we see:
Online safety education is often outdated and irrelevant, failing to address the real challenges children face. And resources for parents are built on what parents see as the problems, not the actual problems that children are facing.
The solutions we want:
We want all adults to be better educated to support young people with the issues they are facing online. This support needs to be informed by children and their experiences. It needs to be relevant and age-appropriate, highlighting child-focused support. Young people need to have a significant role in shaping this.
The problems we see:
AI tools aren’t yet regulated, leading to unchecked developments without accountability. AI chat bots can be unreliable and have the potential to spread misinformation which can lead to serious harm. Additionally, generative AI tools for voice, image and video can be used by anyone to create whatever they want without consequence.
The solutions we want:
Introduce strict AI regulations to make sure it’s developed responsibly, with accountability for creators and clear ethical standards. Implement rigorous testing processes for AI systems to prevent misinformation and restrict what AI will give advice on. There should be limits on the type of content that can be created by AI tools, especially when it comes to sexualised content.
The problems we see:
Online advertising has become the norm in the content young people see online, which risks having a negative impact on their self-esteem and behaviour. And when influencers advertise to young people, they may not always be truthful about what they’re selling. Ultimately tech companies are prioritising advertising over young people’s safety and wellbeing.
The solutions we want:
Stricter regulations on online advertising which could be viewed by young people, and for paid endorsements to be better signposted. AI and filters should be regulated in advertising and content that endorses products. And educational resources should explore the impact of online advertising on young people, and help them have more control over what they see in their feed.
The problems we see:
The tools available to report harmful behaviours on social media do not protect children and young people. They’re often complicated and unclear, making children and young people less likely to report issues. Reporting tools on major platforms are ineffective, and young people often feel like nothing happens when they do report. They also feel that there isn’t effective support.
The solutions we want:
Easier reporting tools should be put in place with clear guidance for younger users. When reports are made by young people, a clear, quick response should let young people know that their report is being dealt with, and where to go for additional support. This response and support should be moderated by real people, who should direct children and young people to youth-focused services like Childline.
The problems we see:
Privacy and data sharing is often opt-in by default and young people are unclear about what information is being collected about them and why, exposing them to privacy risks and their data being used without being fully informed. Additionally, AI models are being trained using data without consent, increasing young people’s fears about AI misinformation.
The solutions we want:
To address privacy risks for young people, platforms should shift to opt-out data sharing by default, use age-based consent frameworks, and be clearer about how data gets used. Safety updates or privacy rollouts should be young person friendly, so they are easy to read and understand.
One Year of Voice of Online Youth
April 2025 marked the end of year one of a two-year term for our current cohort of young people in our Voice of Online Youth group. Despite this only being their first year, our 2024-2026 cohort of young people have made significant contributions to our understanding of youth views on online safety, through active participation in international summits, residential events, and even through meeting key decision makers like the Prime Minister and a Secretary of State.
As we celebrate the end of their first year, we reflect on their achievements and contributions so far.
After a thorough recruitment process, our young people had their initial meeting and got to know each other, what inspired them to apply for the role and shared their priorities for the programme.
Many young people joined the Voice of Online Youth because of a shared passion for making the online world a safer place for all young people.
One of the young people summed this up, “There are positives and negatives of the online world, and I want to help others stay away from the negatives and try to make it a positive and safe space online.”
They worked with our Brand & Content team to develop a new brand for themselves, the Voice of Online Youth. The name reflected their vision for a group focused on sharing young people’s voices as the ‘online generation’.
Ofcom’s Media Literacy Team met with the Voice of Online Youth to discuss their strategy. They had a consultation around what causes harm and what the solutions are. It was an opportunity for the group to learn about Ofcom’s plans for preventing harmful media and how these changes would be implemented.
Our young people were invited to the BRAVE movement event, which included addressing around 75 people across various sectors to speak on a panel discussion to end sexual violence against children. This fed into on-going discussions taking place around the world.
All their efforts up to this point lead to a highly anticipated three-day residential in Stratford-upon-Avon where the group came together to participate in activities and discussions surrounding online safety.
The young people wrote their manifesto with support from our corporate partners at Vodafone, building on their priorities and coming together to ensure a joint approach online safety. It was also an opportunity to celebrate their achievements and efforts so far and most importantly, have fun!
The ‘Smart Phone Debate’ depicts one of the key issues the Voice of Online Youth discussed this year. The main messages they wanted to share were that there are overwhelming benefits that come with phones, such as learning, communication and readiness for the future more generally. Their shared position was that banning smartphones altogether for young people seemed like pushing the problem to deal with it later rather than solving it. As part of this work, they met with a senior producer for BBC Panorama ahead of their special on smartphones to share their views.
Additionally, they worked with our Policy and Public Affairs Team on a Gen-AI research project, supporting the development of solutions with technical, educational, legislative, and policy changes that could be implemented to make Generative AI safer, which has now been published on NSPCC Learning.
The group had a key session in September to explore solutions they would develop to keep children safer online. This built on their manifesto priorities and is something we look forward to sharing more about in the future.
The group worked with the team behind NSPCC Learning content to share the online safety questions and topic areas adults should be engaged with to help keep children safe online. They were also involved in analysing safety features across three popular social media platforms, giving a youth perspective on them.
The group helped Vodafone to judge their First News creative writing competition. They read stories written by other young people about online safety and helped select the winning entries for a printed book for schools.
An exciting opportunity arose to meet with the newly appointed Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Peter Kyle, to discuss his thoughts on a potential phone ban, steps forward to keeping children safe online, as well as our young people sharing their own priorities for children’s safety online. Some also took part in a separate interview with him and were able to observe the behind the scenes of his BBC interview.
The Voice of Online Youth had a joint session with another youth centred group at the NSPCC, the Young People’s Board for Change. It was a chance to gather insights around the young people’s experiences of working with us and how this can be applied to the development of the ‘solution’ for the Voice of Online Youth and what learning we can share for the upcoming year.
Three members of the group also took part in filming for new online safety content for professionals to sit on NSPCC Learning. The fact that it felt like a real movie set made the experience all the more memorable for them.
The group fed into the Girls Research Project with our Policy and Public Affairs colleagues, focusing on safety by design within platforms, and what leads to increased vulnerability of young girls online.
The group supported our development work into addressing the rise in self-generated images by sharing which messages stuck with them when they were younger and what messaging we as NSPCC can enhance within our development work.
One member of the group met with Josh MacAlister, alongside other young people, to discuss his then upcoming safer phones bill. They were joined by four other charities and Josh was very interested to hear what the young people thought about his bill.
The group also recorded a podcast sharing what they think professionals should be more aware of when it comes to online safety. This was the first NSPCC Learning podcast that solely featured the voice of young people!
The Alan Turing Children’s AI Summit brought together children from across the UK, including our Voice of Online Youth, to share their messages for global leaders, policymakers and AI developers on what the future of AI should look like. They took part in a panel discussion as a group chaired by our trustee Sheanna Patelmaster to share their manifesto points on AI and gained insights from other young people too.
Following this, the group had an amazing opportunity to go international by visiting Paris during the 3rd global Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, where they took part in a fringe event hosted by the NSPCC and our partners Common Sense Media and The Lego Group. The Voice of Online Youth shared open reflections and calls to action from the Children's Summit in London and took part in panel discussions.
The group also took part in a closed-door discussion with Henri Verdier, the French Ambassador for Digital Affairs and his deputy Paul Schmite, understanding how France listens to children and young people when discussing plans to keep children safe online.
There was a roundtable discussion at 10 Downing Street with the Prime Minister and the creators of Netflix show Adolescence, discussing whether or not it should be shown in schools. One of the group’s members was invited to participate in this discussion, gaining a much-coveted audience with the PM.
In an external AI UK Conference, hosted by The Alan Turing Institute, a member of the group took part in a panel discussion and discussion with a policy adviser from the Department for Education around the impacts of AI.
Coming to the end of their first year as a group, the Voice of Online Youth has the opportunity to work with external organisations like Edelman and OMD to establish what messages they want to get across from their manifesto over the next year.
We hope the next year will be just as exciting for the group and we look forward to sharing another update with you soon.
Find out more about how to keep children safe online
Supported by Vodafone.
