YOU^thDIG – Youth Dialogue on Internet Governance

09 – 11 May 2025, YOU^thDIG | 12 – 14 May 2025, EuroDIG

The Youth Dialogue on Internet Governance (YOU^thDIG) is a yearly pre-event to the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) aimed to foster active youth participation. Young people (ages 18-30) from the pan-European region with a strong interest in Internet governance, digital policy and cooperation are working together to draft and advocate for the youth messages.

Every year the YOU^thDIG Organising Team is compiled of former YOU^thDIG participants who design the programme for the upcoming edition. This is a chance to reflect and improve the programme from last editions, build further connections with YOU^thDIG alumni and the EuroDIG community and to provide an opportunity for young people throughout Europe to participate in the Internet Governance Ecosystem focusing on topics that are important to youth in the field.

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YOU^thDIG programme

Webinars 2 April, 9 April, 16 April, 23 April, 30 April | 9 – 11 May 2025, YOU^thDIG | 12 – 14 May 2025, EuroDIG

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12 May 2025 | 09:00 – 10:15 CEST | Room 10

This session will delve into how the Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law was crafted to complement existing international human rights standards, bridge legal gaps arising from rapid technological advances, and strengthen democracy and the rule of law.

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12 May 2025 | 09:00 – 10:15 CEST | Room 8

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, achieving true digital inclusion remains a global challenge. Despite technological advances, 2.6 billion people are still offline, with women, rural populations, and persons with disabilities disproportionately affected. To bridge digital divides and harness digital public goods for sustainable development, UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) jointly with the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP), and other key stakeholders created IGF DC-Digital Inclusion in February 2024, in line with IFAP Strategic Plan for 2023-2029 and contributing to the implementation of the Global Digital Compact (GDC).

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12 May 2025 | 09:00 – 10:15 CEST | Room 7

This session is meant as an introduction into the topic of age verification and aims to bring in viewpoints by various stakeholders. It will be focused on practical issues and case studies by different stakeholders.

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12 May 2025 | 11:00 – 12:15 CEST | Room 10

The session will discuss how to strengthen the democratic resilience through tackling the threat of disinformation and harmful content online.

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12 May 2025 | 11:00 – 12:15 CEST | Room 8

Over the past five years, the digital landscape has undergone profound transformations, impacting policy frameworks, governance structures, and global digital inclusion efforts. As countries adapt their national strategies to this evolving environment, UNESCO continues to provide robust measurement tools to assess and guide policy development on critical digital issues. The recent revision of UNESCO’s Internet Universality Indicators (IUI) has strengthened its ability to assess national Internet development through a human rights-based, open, accessible, and multi-stakeholder approach, addressing equally cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, emerging technologies and the environmental impact of the internet.

UNESCO’s engagement in the Beijing +30 process builds on the organization’s longstanding commitment to gender equality in and through the media. UNESCO convened experts to assess progress on the commitments outlined in Strategic Objective J – Women in the Media – of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, with a focus on exploring new challenges as the rise of artificial intelligence and technology-facilitated gender-based violence. By integrating both the IUI and Beijing reviews, UNESCO is driving evidence-based policies that address the evolving intersection between gender equality and the digital sphere, ensuring more inclusive digital and media landscapes.

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12 May 2025 | 11:00 – 12:15 CEST | Room 7

During the 2025 AI Action Summit in Paris, at the invitation of the French Digital Ambassador, the IGF Youth Track co-organizing group developed its position on how AI can empower education, as outlined in their joint declaration. The declaration focuses on how a multistakeholder community can harness the potential of AI-related technologies to enhance the quality of education and achieve SDG 4. It also builds on the outcomes of the IGF 2024 Global Youth Summit, hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and centers the discussion on leveraging the current momentum with the implementation of the Global Digital Compact, progress on the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, and preparations for the 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society. During the AI Action Summit in Paris on 11 February 2025, the declaration was discussed among multistakeholder leaders, including both current and next-generation experts. This workshop, hosted at EuroDIG, will provide an opportunity for youth from around the world to engage in a dialogue with current multistakeholder leadership to discuss how the declaration’s objectives and ideas can be translated into practice. Through discussions with senior stakeholders, a network of Youth IGF coordinators will explore how AI can advance education. This includes the 193 Governments action such as modernizing curricula, strengthening international cooperation, and developing AI-driven educational frameworks that promote lifelong learning and adaptability in an evolving technological landscape. The workshop will also examine the role of all stakeholders – including Governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, and the technical community – in ensuring that the design, deployment, and utilization of AI support the creation of localized educational content that aligns with diverse cultural and contextual needs while fostering global knowledge-sharing and collaboration.

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12 May 2025 | 13:00 – 14:15 CEST | Room 6

This session will dive into the outcomes of the recent Global Multistakeholder High Level Conference on Governance of Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds that was hosted by the European Commission and the 2025 Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU on 31 March and 1 April 2025. Join us to revisit the conference’s objectives, examine its key principles and recommendations, and discuss the EU’s perspective on the conference outcomes and their relevance to the broader WSIS agenda!

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12 May 2025 | 13:00 – 14:15 CEST | Room 10

This session aims to foster a multi-stakeholder dialogue complementing the ongoing political process related to the international regulation of autonomous weapons systems. It includes relevant constituencies, including tech sector and industry, parliamentarians, academia and civil society in order to tackle the issue from various perspectives, including the human rights, ethical, security and technological implications of autonomous weapons systems and the need for establishing rules and limits on their development and use.

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12 May 2025 | 13:00 – 14:15 CEST | Room 8

The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) has identified rights-respecting DPI as a crucial tool for digital inclusion, an agenda to be advanced during the Estonian Chairship in 2025. The FOC has been engaging in regional stakeholder outreach to gather input on the principles, and now invite European stakeholders to join this session to present their feedback.

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12 May 2025 | 13:00 – 14:15 CEST | Room 7

How can we ensure today’s IoT systems remain secure and resilient in a rapidly evolving digital landscape shaped by AI and quantum computing? Join us to explore practical actions and future-ready strategies for trustworthy IoT.

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12 May 2025 | 15:00 – 15:30 CEST | Hemicycle

• Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe
• Elisabeth Margue, Minister of Justice, Luxembourg
• Michael Falzon, Minister for Social Policy and Children’s Rights of Malta
• Sandra Hoferichter, Secretary General and Thomas Schneider, President, EuroDIG Support Association

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12 May 2025 | 15:30 – 16:00 CEST | Hemicycle

• Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, Ukraine
• Marianne Wilhelmsen, State Secretary Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance, Norway (online)
• Michael O’Flaherty, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe

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12 May 2025 | 16:00 – 17:15 CEST | Hemicycle

As digital technologies increasingly shape our democracies, economies, and societies, parliaments and parliamentarians are central to ensuring that this transformation reflects shared values. This session brings together elected representatives from across the world to exchange experiences and explore how to shape digital governance that upholds human dignity, enables innovation, and supports inclusive development. It will highlight the role of parliaments in translating international standards – such as those of the Council of Europe, the EU, OECD, and the United Nations etc. – into national policies that both manage risks and harness opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and internet technologies. Rather than focusing solely on challenges, the event and ensuing exchange aim to explore how digital tools, when guided by clear democratic principles, can help advance transparency, scientific progress, participatory governance, and the protection of human rights.

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12 May 2025 | 17:15 – 18:00 CEST | Hemicycle

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12 May 2025 | 18:00-18:15 CEST

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12 May 2025 | 18:15 – 20:30 CEST

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