The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) is currently recruiting working group members for a new youth-led project that will run from December 2024 until March 2026 with the goal of amplifying young people’s views and experiences to improve child safety online in Scotland. This project is being run in partnership with the NSPCC, who is also working with their online safety participation group – Voice of Online Youth – and partner organisations in Wales and Northern Ireland to help foster nation-specific impact across the UK.
Leading this project is a working group of 10 young people – including Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) – who are passionate about ensuring that decisions made to reduce online harms targeting children and young people in Scotland directly consider actual young peoples’ experiences and opinions. In this light, the working group is at the centre of all project decisions and actions.
Furthermore, to ensure we hear from young people throughout Scotland, this project has incorporated six regional voice groups from different geographic regions of Scotland, who will take part in insight-gathering and resource co-design workshops led by the working group.
This project is an incredible opportunity for working group members to create national-level change to protect children and young people’s right to be safe online, along the way:
- Collaborating with a team of motivated young people.
- Developing organisational and planning skills.
- Becoming confident facilitators and youth advocates.
- Designing creative approaches to addressing difficult topics – targeted at young people and the adults in their lives.
Key activities of the working group include:
- Receiving relevant project training to upskill in planning, insight-gathering, youth-friendly facilitation, meaningful participation, project evaluations, and communication.
- Designing and leading in-person and online sessions with regional voice groups to explore key issues in children and young peoples’ safety online.
- Co-designing resources with regional voice group members to help young people campaign for changes related to child safety online.
- Taking action to amplify children and young people’s views through meeting with Scottish decision-makers and tracking campaign influence.
- Meeting with young people who are leading project mechanisms in Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the Voice of Online Youth to share project learnings and successes.
- Running an online event in November 2025 to showcase the child online safety tools they’ve developed to key Scottish stakeholders and decision-makers.
Apply to be in the Working Group
Any young person living in Scotland aged 14-18* can now apply to join the working group by filling in the online Application Form before midday on Thursday, 12 December 2024. You can also read more about this opportunity – including key participation dates – through the project Information Sheet.
You will be asked to share via a written or video response why you are interested in joining SYP’s child safety online project working group, as well as what you believe to be the key issues in Scotland today regarding keeping children and young people safe online.
Working group members will be selected by SYP staff, with input from SYP Board Members who advise on the strategy of SYP’s Participation and Programmes work. If you are a current MSYP, the selection group will be giving priority to young people who are not already involved in another SYP project, to create space for new voices in our project work.
Additionally, as we want this group to be as diverse as possible to represent the varied viewpoints of young people in Scotland, we especially encourage young people from seldom heard groups to apply. This includes:
- Young people of colour
- LGBTQ+ young people
- Young people from rural/island areas
- Young people with care experience
- Young carers
- Young people with a visible or invisible disability
- Young people who experience or are at risk of poverty
*In line with SYP’s child protection policy, young people under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a parent or other adult when travelling to in-person activities. SYP will cover the travel costs and accommodation for this adult. The adult does not need to attend the event.
If you have any questions about this project, please contact Lucie Paradis, SYP’s Participation and Programmes Officer by emailing lucie.p@syp.org.uk.
