Young Digital Leaders 2019: From Safety to Citizenship Online

The Young Digital Leaders 2019 report evaluates a digital citizenship education (DCE) programme implemented in Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania. The initiative, supported by Google.org, aimed to empower students aged 1116, upskill teachers, and equip parents to foster positive online engagement. Evaluation data shows significant gains in participants' understanding of digital concepts like echo chambers and filter bubbles, though the report notes that short-term workshops are less effective at changing long-term attitudes and behaviours than teacher-led, slower-paced delivery. The report recommends that the European Commission adopt the Council of Europe's definition of digital citizenship and that national governments embed DCE into school curricula across multiple subjects.

• School workshop students showed significant increases in confidence regarding digital citizenship concepts, specifically a 79% increase in understanding echo chambers and a 78% increase in understanding filter bubbles.
• The programme improved students' knowledge of online safety and rights, including a 56% increase in knowledge of how to give and receive consent online and a 130% increase in those reporting they flag hate speech.
• Teacher training results indicate a high demand for digital citizenship education, with 99% of participating teachers wanting more training for schools and 98% finding the YDL programme helpful.
• The 'Train-the-Trainer' (TTT) model, where teachers delivered the curriculum over several weeks, generally achieved better learning outcomes and higher knowledge-confidence gains than the short-term facilitator-led workshops.
• Parents and carers reported feeling significantly better equipped to support their children, with 97% feeling more able to help with online safety challenges and 97% more likely to discuss online safety with their children.
• The report identifies a gap in the ability of both students and teachers to correctly identify 'fake news' through open-text testing, suggesting a need for improved teaching methods and evaluation tools for this specific topic.
• The programme found that while knowledge gains were high, attitudinal and behavioural changes were smaller, suggesting that DCE needs to be embedded in the school curriculum over a longer period to be effective.

APA

Phillips, J., King, J., Boyer, I., & Augeri, A. (2019). Young Digital Leaders 2019: From Safety to Citizenship Online. Institute for Strategic Dialogue. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Young-Digital-Leaders-2019-V5.pdf

Chicago

Phillips, Josh, Jennie King, Iris Boyer, and Alexia Augeri. Young Digital Leaders 2019: From Safety to Citizenship Online. Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2019. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Young-Digital-Leaders-2019-V5.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Phillips |first1=Josh |last2=King |first2=Jennie |last3=Boyer |first3=Iris |last4=Augeri |first4=Alexia |title=Young Digital Leaders 2019: From Safety to Citizenship Online |publisher=Institute for Strategic Dialogue |date=November 2019 |url=https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Young-Digital-Leaders-2019-V5.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{phillips2019young, author = {Phillips, Josh and King, Jennie and Boyer, Iris and Augeri, Alexia}, title = {{Young Digital Leaders 2019: From Safety to Citizenship Online}}, institution = {Institute for Strategic Dialogue}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Young-Digital-Leaders-2019-V5.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }