Youth-2-Youth Program

The Youth-2-Youth Program engages high school teens in learning about and teaching Internet safety. In the 2009/2010 school year SOLOS implemented the Youth-2-Youth Program at Ecole Mission Secondary School (MSS). The teens taught internet safety to elementary school children from their feeder schools. The support of the funder was acknowledged on all handout materials, during the presentations and in press releases regarding the Project.

SOLOS staff met with teens in their classrooms three times and worked together with them to develop the content for a one hour lesson plan. Then the teens, with the supervision of MSS support staff, presented an internet safety presentation and resources to children at local elementary schools. After the presentations, teens completed a 500-word report reflecting on their experience and the outcome of their work. (This 500-word report was submitted to SOLOS and will assist the teens in satisfying the B.C. high school students’ graduation requirement: “youth are to complete 30 hours of volunteer work in their community”.) Upon completion of the Youth-2-youth Program, the teens will have completed ten hours toward this requirement.

The focus of this program was that youth speaking to children is more effective and has more impact than training delivered by adults because;

  • High school youth internalized the Internet safety messages better when they had to teach them to younger youth.
  • Children responded better to older youth than they might have done to adults teaching the same message. The program acknowledged teens as having excellent online skills, which in most cases are better than elementary teachers.

Overall this Youth-2-youth Program had 16 high school students present workshops to 240 students in four area elementary schools on a budget of $8000. This represents tremendous value both in reach and in relevance of the information.

Comments from teen reports:

  • "The students were excited about the topic because it related to the world around them."
  • " We were amazed at how many kids did not think about safety when they are online."
  • "The most inspiring aspect for us was the number of questions that kids had during and after the presentation."
  • "We were surprised about how many students posted their personal information online, not realizing that anyone with unsafe motives could reach that information and become a threat.”
  • "The kids were very hungry to know more about how they should keep themselves safe online."
  • "The information we were giving the kids was a surprise to them."
  • "It seems they know how to use a computer, but don’t think enough about safety."
  • "It was surprising how many kids had Facebook and Twitter accounts even though they are underage."

Questions the children asked the teen presenters:

  • “Do you have an account on Facebook, and if you do, what do you do with it?”
  • “Why is being safe online so important?”
  • “How old do you have to be to be on Facebook?”
  • “What is so risky about the internet?”
  • “Who would I go to, if there was a problem online?”


For information about having the Youth-2-youth Program in your school district,

or if you'd like to fund a Program in your area, please contact

Merlyn Horton
Executive Director
Safe OnLine Outreach Society (SOLOS)
604-615-7899

 

Registered Charity Tax No. 86021-9641-RR0001

 

 

Download a copy of the 2009/2010 Youth-2-youth Program Final Report

here