In his speech marking the 11th anniversary of the Tumas Fenech Foundation, President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici rightly emphasised that citizens’ access to information is a precondition of a democratic country. In fact, the right to information has been recognised by a number of declarations and conventions, including the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the Rights of the Child.

Youth Information:

to empower our youth

Youth Information is about empowering youth, as information is a precondition for their participation in society. So Youth Information has become a special area of youth work supporting young people in becoming independent citizens by giving them access to comprehensive and accurate information on which to base their autonomous decisions.

The Youth Information Charter of the European Youth Information and Counselling Agency (ERYICA) states that youth information must be comprehensive, reliable, up-to-date, corresponding to young people’s needs and presented in an easily understood manner in formats preferred by young people. It also states that Youth Information services are to be available to all people without exception, regardless of their situation, origin, gender, religion or social category.

Aġenzija Żgħażagħ’s Youth Information Portal

Aġenzija Żgħażagħ’s Youth Information Portal, one of the national youth agency’s first initiative, was recently launched with the intention of reaching the above objectives. In fact, it has been approved and certified by ERYICA The portal seeks to provide a reliable, up-to-date and one stop shop information service that is relevant and related to young people.

In order to obtain a clearer picture of what kind of information the young people tend to seek, and to discover how they prefer to receive that information, a considerable amount of research was carried out by the Youth Agency together with YouthCom, a student organisation for those reading for a degree in Youth and Community Studies. The results show that our young people are interested in having information about education, housing, money issues, family and relationships, law and justice, rights and responsibilities, employment, Europe, sport, culture, leisure, volunteering, cyber safety, travel and health, among others. To this end, details about services provided by government and non-governmental organisations in the above-mentioned areas are found throughout the portal’s 700 pages and 500 links.

The portal also recognises the importance of quality, holistic information services for young people. It uses both the Maltese and English language, has accessibility features, search functions, a cyber safety section, up-dated news, events, media and downloads section and a streaming music function aimed primarily at promoting local artistes and their music with direct links to the respective websites.

In line with its campaign slogan “everything that matters to you(th)”, Youth Information Malta also aims to be a common meeting platform for young people, institutions, organisations, youth workers and Aġenzija Żgħażagħ. Actually it acts as a link between young people with a need and the agency that can meet that need.

Being smart online

Recent research confirms that 97 per cent of our children and adolescents have access to internet from their home, with 55 per cent using it on a daily basis. Eighty per cent have a social network account. These figures are, of course, quoted with satisfaction, as succeeding in the Information Society is all about information access and literacy. However, there is another side to these figures. Children and adolescents are exposed to obvious and not so obvious dangers, and they need to be protected.

The Communications Authority, in collaboration with the Education, Employment and the Family Ministry, together with the Church Schools Authorities, the Directorate for Educational Services, the Commissioner for Children, the Social Services Foundation and the Police, has established ways and means of providing protection by introducing an initiative being called “Be Smart Online” which should be up and running in the next few months. Basically, the programme is intended to raise awareness among all children and teenagers of safe and proper internet use, while staying away from potential abuse. Be Smart Online will also include a helpline.While wishing to see our young people take their places as responsible Maltese citizens and effective contributors to society, we have to ensure that they are well informed and empowered to voice their opinions in a safe environment.

Clyde Puli is the Parliamentary Secretary for Youth and Sport