Great potential in youth and connectivity

WITH the majority of persons aged 15 to 24 years old in this country having access to the Internet, there is a need to ensure that they are using that access for more than social media.

So says UNICEF Representative to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Aloys Kamuragiye. He made the comments while addressing those attending ‘Activate Talks’, an event hosted by UNICEF under the theme ‘Connected Generation: Necessary Tool or Window to Violence’ at United Nations House yesterday. The event, he indicated, was not intended to provide solutions to issues, such as the eradication of youth violence from the Caribbean, but to initiate discussions while garnering feedback from various players in an effort to begin the process of finding solutions.

Kamuragiye’s comments came as he referred to Barbados’ most recent multiple indicator cluster survey, which revealed that there is a very high access to the Internet among the mentioned age group. He noted the survey showed that in fact, 85.6 per cent of all 15- to 24-year-olds had used the Internet within the last week and nearly 100 per cent used the Internet at some point in their lives. Given that, he contended the challenge is to harness that access, so they are using it to do more than “socialise on social media”. The goal, he said, is that they can use that connectivity to bring attention to issues that require society to either take action or to see an alternate point of view.

The UNICEF Representative made the point as he contended that children and young people have the resources and tools, including “the amazing level of connectivity” they currently enjoy, that can be used to solve many of the problems that they are facing, including increasing violence. He said that communication can be “better directed, better informed and better harnessed for its power and influence”. With that in mind, he went on to say it is his firm belief that there is great potential in children and youth to not only enrich the decision-making processes, but to share perspectives and to participate as change agents.

To that end, he maintained that young people are not the sources of problems; rather they are the resources that are needed to solve the problems.

“You now have the floor and you already have the lead in social media. How do you propose to use that more effectively so that you are heard, you are responsibly putting forth viable solutions to some hard problems such as preventing and addressing child abuse and neglect, child sexual abuse, bullying and violence in schools, rising crime among young people, obesity in childhood, teenage pregnancy, school dropout, etc.? We need to seek and listen attentively to new solutions to these age-old and increasing problems. So, Young Minds, we are here to listen,” he said. (JRT)