On 15 July 2026, young people aged 12 to 35 gathered for the second edition of the Swiss Youth IGF. Over one day, they learned how the internet is governed, heard from experts on AI and social media, and wrote their own messages to policymakers.<\/p>\n
The morning started intensively. Our youth coordinators Murillo Salvador and Fabio Monnet opened with an introduction to internet governance and multistakeholderism: the idea that governments, companies, civil society, the technical community and users all shape the internet together.<\/p>\n
A few small technical glitches early on turned out to be a blessing. They were quickly fixed and helped break the ice. Our digital mascot Swiggy, a 3D Shiba, kept the mood light. Alessandro Ciceri moderated for our online participants – with true British elegance as some people remarked – so everyone, in the room and online, felt safe to speak up.<\/p>\n
Ayisha Piotti walked the participants through the basics of AI: what it is, where society already uses it, and, most relevant for the audience, how young people can use it well. She was equally clear about its risks and limits.<\/p>\n
As always, Ayisha came with a watch list. The Cleaners<\/i> shows the hidden workers who moderate content for big platforms, The Social Dilemma<\/i> explores how algorithms shape our behaviour on social media, and Coded Bias<\/i> reveals the prejudices that can be built into AI systems.<\/p>\n
One threat she highlighted is that AI can make things sound perfectly logical when they are factually wrong. Her answer is the STOP<\/b> framework: S<\/b>ource check, T<\/b>hink critically, O<\/b>wn your decision and P<\/b>rotect your data. She closed with a powerful policy message: the future of AI should not only be designed for<\/i> young people, but with<\/i> young people.<\/p>\nAnja Lapkevic: an ethical code for social media<\/h2>\n
Anja Lapkevic gave a very moving talk on why social media users need an ethical code, and why young people must be both protected and empowered online.<\/p>\n
She spoke for the Conscious Influence Hub<\/a><\/u><\/span>, an independent, non-profit association based in Zug and founded in 2020. The Hub promotes responsible digital communication through a Code of Conduct that helps influencers, organisations and everyday users act with respect, empathy and transparency. Its projects include WTFake, an interactive exhibition on AI and misinformation on social media, and Conscious Sharenting, run with Kinderschutz Schweiz, which raises awareness about posting pictures of children online.<\/p>\n The morning ended with a short interview with Andrey Gerhard, who boosted the room’s confidence that young people do have power over Big Tech, even in a small country like Switzerland.<\/p>\n He pointed to the Internet Initiative<\/a><\/u><\/span>, a popular initiative now collecting signatures. It calls on social media platforms, search engines and AI providers to fight child sexual abuse material and violent content, protect people from cybercrime and tackle disinformation. Its initiative committee includes all major Swiss parties, and the campaign aims to gather 100,000 signatures in 300 days. It would not be the first time Switzerland acted. Voters already approved, for instance, the so-called Netflix tax, which requires streaming services to invest in Swiss filmmaking. He is also working on something big for the AI summit next year.<\/p>\n A big thank you once again to all our speakers!<\/p>\n After a full morning, everyone enjoyed a well-deserved lunch at Maruzzella. Despite the name, it had far more on offer than mozzarella. The team kindly opened up the space especially for us that afternoon, and we are very grateful for that gesture.<\/p>\n Back at the Fachhochschule Graub\u00fcnden campus, it was time to write the youth messages. Inspired by all three speakers, the participants were most drawn to AI and social media. So we split into two groups, one per topic, and brainstormed on flip charts about what young people want to tell policymakers.<\/p>\n Young people are worried about addictive algorithms, cyber harassment, digital tracking that can threaten their physical safety, and a lack of transparency about where information comes from. Their message is clear: platforms must be held accountable, and if they refuse, young people will build their own, better alternatives.<\/p>\n Three questions drove the discussion. How can content moderation deal with misinformation and harmful content? What happens when online spaces become a real threat to physical safety and well-being? And how can trust in Big Tech be rebuilt after repeated scandals, from Cambridge Analytica to AI-generated nude images made with Grok?<\/p>\n From these questions came three calls to action. First, the group asked the private sector<\/b> for more community notes and content flagging, backed by independent watchdog NGOs: no takedowns, just clear warning labels. Second, they called on governments and schools<\/b> to introduce mandatory digital literacy classes for students and teachers, with parents involved too. Third, they want the private sector<\/b> to build platforms with trust by design. These do not have to be a “vegan” version of social media. Profit is fine, as long as there are guardrails and well-trained developers.<\/p>\n Generative AI has entered our daily lives at unforeseen speed and scale, with little responsibility or accountability from those driving it. As a result, it is getting harder to tell fact from fiction online. The group also pointed out that schools reward grades rather than learning, which makes AI a tempting shortcut. On top of that, growing AI use puts pressure on the environment, the information landscape and our mental health, for example through water consumption.<\/p>\n The demands follow directly from this. Governments and the private sector<\/b> should support pedagogical AI by design: tools that are accessible to teachers and students and can compete with general consumer chatbots. Governments and international organisations<\/b> should join up their efforts on AI governance and adopt national hard law that can actually be enforced, for instance on the transparency, provenance and watermarking of synthetic content. Finally, the private sector, civil society and academia<\/b> should evaluate how computing power is used and direct it to good purposes, to limit water use and protect the digital public sphere from needless AI slop.<\/p>\n The youth messages already spread their wings. The week after our event, they were presented as the official youth messages at the closing ceremony of the Swiss IGF<\/a><\/u><\/span>, in front of a national audience. They were also uploaded to the UN IGF platform, where the Swiss Youth IGF<\/a><\/u><\/span> is registered.<\/p>\n Their journey continues this autumn. One of our participants has stepped up as youth ambassador and will bring them to the 6th National Forum of Jugend und Medien<\/a><\/u><\/span>, a Swiss national platform for media literacy.<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, we are working on a system of shared outcomes across several youth events, so that young voices can amplify each other. And stay tuned for next year: we are planning new formats<\/b> to engage young people even more directly.<\/p>\n Interested in the Swiss Youth IGF and its activities? The best way to get involved is our WhatsApp Group<\/a><\/u><\/span>, our direct channel to everyone in the network. You can also follow us on LinkedIn<\/a><\/u><\/span> and Instagram<\/a><\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n PS: You don’t need to be a youth to support and follow us!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 15 July 2026, young people aged 12 to 35 gathered for the second edition of the Swiss Youth IGF. Over one day, they learned how the internet is governed, heard from experts on AI and social media, and wrote their own messages to policymakers. Setting the scene The morning started intensively. Our youth coordinators […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3010,"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3005\/revisions\/3010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sidg.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Andrey Gerhard: yes, Switzerland can hold Big Tech to account<\/h2>\n
From lunch to flip charts<\/h1>\n
The 2026 Swiss Youth IGF Messages<\/h1>\n
Social media: accountable platforms, or we build better ones<\/h2>\n
Generative AI: learning over grades, rules with teeth<\/h2>\n
So what’s next?<\/h1>\n
Join us<\/h1>\n