Youth Charter

Impact of Social Media and Screen-use on young people’s health

Written Evidence

Prepared for:

Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into impact of social media and screen-use on young people’s health

Prepared by:

The Youth Charter

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Contents Page

1.0 BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 YOUTH CHARTER RESEARCH 1 1.2 GEOFF THOMPSON MBE FRSA DL, FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE

CHAIR

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2.0 INQUIRY TERMS OF REFERENCE 3 2.1 POSITIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA 4 2.2 NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND SCREEN-USE ON

YOUNG PEOPLES PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELL-BEING 5

2.3 MITIGATION OF NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND SCREEN-USE

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2.4 ROLE OF PARENTS, SCHOOLS AND GOVERNMENT

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3.0 CASE STUDY 1: YC DIGIWISE PROJECT 7 3.1 WHAT IS A COMMUNITY CAMPUS? 8

3.1.1 BENEFITS – LEGACY DEVELOPMENT GOALS 8 3.2 YC DIGIWISE ACADEMY – THE LANDING, MEDIACITYUK 9 3.3 DUKE OF YORK – INSPIRING DIGITAL ENTERPRISE AWARDS

– iDEA

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4.0 CASE STUDY 2: MEDIACITYUK COMMUNITY CAMPUS & CBBC SUMMER SOCIAL FREE SCHOOLS EVENT

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5.0 CONCLUSION – LEGACY CALL TO ACTION

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1.0 BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION 1. The Youth Charter is a UK registered charity, UN accredited non-governmental

organisation and is a 25 Year Games Legacy of Manchester’s bid for the 2000 Olympic Games and the hosting of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games.

2. The Youth Charter has campaigned and promoted the role and value of sport,

arts and cultural activity in the lives of disaffected young people from disadvantaged communities nationally and internationally.

3. The Youth Charter has a proven track record in the creation and delivery of

social and human development legacy projects and programmes with the overall aim of providing young people with an opportunity through sport, art and cultural activity to develop in life.

4. Through our work with youth and communities the Youth Charter has pioneered

three core youth and community development programmes:

• Community Campus – Somewhere to Go

• Youthwise “Curriculum for Life” – Something to Do

• Social Coach Leadership Programme – Someone to Show Them

1.1 YOUTH CHARTER RESEARCH 5. The Youth Charter has produced, contributed to, and participated in:

• 23 Youth Reports (produced) • 31 External Reports and Government Publications (contributed to) • 205 Conferences and Events (participated in)

6. The Youth Charter has produced five Youth and Community Development

reports produced since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics:

• YC 2012 Games Legacy Report (2013)

• YC Glasgow 2014 Legacy Forum Report (2014)

• YC ‘21’ Soccerwise Report (2014)

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• YC ‘22’ Tenniwise Report (2015)

• YC 2016 Games Legacy Impact Report (2017) 7. The Youth Charter can provide these reports on request.

1.2 GEOFF THOMPSON MBE FRSA DL, FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE CHAIR 8. Geoff Thompson is Founder and Executive Chair of the Youth Charter

(www.youthcharter.co.uk), a UK registered charity and United Nations Non-Governmental Organisation established in 1993. He is a former five times World Karate Champion and one of the leading youth activists and experts in sports development and politics with over 25-years’ experience in the bidding, hosting and legacy of major games and the positive impact of sport, arts, culture and technology in the social and human development of young people and communities.

9. Through his work with the Youth Charter, Geoff has advised major games,

including: 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, 1997 FIFA World Cup, Nagano 1998 Olympic Bid, 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, All Africa Games 1999, Manchester 2000 Olympic Bid, Commonwealth Games 2002 bid and games, Cape Town 2000 Olympic Bid, 2008 UEFA Soccer Championships, 2010 FIFA World Cup on the social and human development policy, strategies and programmes in the bidding, hosting and legacy of major championships in the lives of young people and their local communities.

10. Geoff has also worked on assignments for United Nations agencies such as

UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO, WHO and the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace as well as the FIFA, Commonwealth Secretariat and Swiss Agency for Development.

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2.0 INQUIRY TERMS OF REFERENCE 11. The Terms of Reference are:

• The Committee would particularly welcome the perspectives and experiences, and details of any initiatives taken, by children, schools and youth organisations

• What evidence there is on the effects of social media and screen-use on young people’s physical and mental well-being — for better and for worse — and any gaps in the evidence;

• The areas that should be the focus of any further research needed, and why; • The well-being benefits from social media usage, including for example any

apps that provide mental-health benefits to users;

• The physical/mental harms from social media use and screen-use, including: safety online risks, the extent of any addictive behaviour, and aspects of social media/apps which magnify such addictive behaviour;

• Any measures being used, or needed, to mitigate any potential harmful effects of excessive screen-use — what solutions are being used?;

• The extent of awareness of any risks, and how awareness could be increased for particular groups — children, schools, social media companies, Government, etc;

• What monitoring is needed, and by whom;

• What measures, controls or regulation are needed;

• Where responsibility and accountability should lie for such measures; 12. Our 21st Century Global Society is now shaped by digital social interactions, as

we rapidly move from the Third Industrial Revolution - or the Digital Revolution of the late 20th and early 21st Century - into the Fourth Industrial Revolution of the disruptive technologies and trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) which are changing the way we live and work.

13. The Digital world is borderless but not without borders, it has the power to unite

and to divide, and as with all evolutionary changes, this is presenting Challenges and Opportunities for our globalised society.

14. Applying the Terms of Reference for the inquiry the Impact of Social Media and

Screen-use on young people’s health, the Youth Charter provides supporting evidence in the following areas:

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• Positive Impact of Social Media • Negative Impact of Social Media and Screen-Use on Young Peoples

Physical and Mental Well-being • Mitigation of Negative Impact of Social Media and Screen-Use • Role of Parents, Schools and Government

2.1 POSITIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

15. The positive impact of social media for young people include: Social Networks; Social Campaigns; Access to Information; and Access to Applications that can promote positive behaviours.

16. Since the revolution of mobile phones in the 1990s, and now Social Media,

young people have been able to communicate with one another faster and more frequently than ever before. This allows young people to develop and maintain wider social networks than previous generations.

17. These social networks have been exploited by young people to promote Social Campaigns on subjects that are important to them, with #marchforourlives anti-gun campaign in the USA providing the prime example. Added to this, is the fact that for many young people Social Media is now their key source information on the subjects they care about.

18. The #StatusofMind survey, by Royal Society Public Health, found the following negative impacts of social media: Access to other people’s health experiences and expert health information; Emotional support and community building; Self-expression and self-identity; and Making, maintaining and building upon relationships.

2.2 NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND SCREEN-USE ON

YOUNG PEOPLES PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

“There's definitely something about the impact of social media in terms of people being able to go from slightly angry with each other to 'fight' very quickly.”

- Cressida Dick CBE QPM, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London

19. The negative impact of social media and screen-use on young people’s physical and mental well-being is being witnessed in a number of different

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ways including: Physical Inactivity; Child Obesity; Mental Health; Sleep Patterns; Radicalisation; and Youth Violence.

20. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UK Government recommend

that children and young people have at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. However, at present the number of children meeting this target drops 40% as they move through primary school, a Public Health England (PHE) survey found (2017).

21. This fall in physical activity by children in primary school is mirrored in increases in the number of children recorded as overweight and obese from 22.1% in Reception Year to 34.3% in Year 6 pupils for England. This increases to 38.1% for Greater London, with 8 London Boroughs recording more than 40% of Year 6 pupils overweight or Obese (PHE National Child Measurement Programme 2015/16). The Child Obesity crisis has led to increases in the number of children suffering from diabetes and sleep apnoea.

22. The #StatusofMind survey, by Royal Society Public Health, found the following negative impacts of social media on young people’s mental health and wellbeing: Anxiety and Depression; Sleep; Body Image; Cyberbullying; and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). Whilst an Australian study has found that teenagers sleep patterns are being affected by social media and screen, which is impacting on their mental health and well-being.

23. The radicalisation of young people via social media was graphically witnessed in the recruitment of teenagers and young people from the UK who went to join Daesh (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq (Home Office & DfE (2015)). Further to this far-right extremists in the UK have also used social media to recruit young people (Demos 2017).

24. Youth violence in the UK is also being instigated via social media, for example, the brutal killing of Sait Mboob, 18, in Moss Side, Manchester (August 2017) was the result of rival gangs “dis’sing” each other in rap videos posted on YouTube. Jordan Wright, 19, was stabbed to death, in south-east London, following an argument on WhatsApp (April 2017). Osman Sharif Soufi, 16, was stabbed to death, in north London, following an argument with a friend on Snapchat (June 2017).

2.3 MITIGATION OF NEGATIVE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND

SCREEN-USE

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25. Digital platforms and applications can be developed and used to promote positive behaviours and mitigate against negative behaviour use of social media and screen use.

26. This is central to the development of the Youth Charter’s Digiwise platform

that: uses sport, arts, culture and digital technology to engage, motivate and inspire young people; provides tools to equip young people for life; and empowers with hope and aspiration. Please see section 3.0 for more information on the Digiwise platform.

2.4 ROLE OF PARENTS, SCHOOLS AND GOVERNMENT

27. Parents, schools and government all equally have a role to play in shaping the positive behaviours and to mitigate against negative use of social media and screen use.

28. For parents it is important that they are provided with information about social media and screen use for children and young people, with age appropriate advice about what steps they can take. This can be done through support from child birth to primary school to secondary school.

29. Schools can provide pupils and parents with information regarding social media and screen use and promoting positive behaviours. This can be done as part Citizenship Education, Health and Wellbeing Education, with education days focused on using Social Media and Screen Use positively, for example the Salford Hackathon event at The Landing in MediaCityUK.

30. The government’s role is to provide leadership, which includes: rules and regulations to ensure children and young people are safeguarded; guidance and information for schools, parents and young people; and curriculum development for schools.

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3.0 CASE STUDY 1: YC DIGIWISE PROJECT

‘Interactively Active, Actively Interactive’ 31. The Youth Charter (YC) Digiwise project provides an ‘interactively active,

actively interactive’ Curriculum for Life that reflects the Youth Charter’s work to engage, equip and empower young people through sport, art, culture and digital technology.

32. The aim of the YC Digiwise project is to deliver a:

• Citizenship initiative that will Engage, Equip and Empower young people through sport, art, culture and digital technology

33. The YC Digiwise project is delivered with youth and communities in three

phases:

• PHASE 1 - ENGAGE, motivate and inspire young people in the classroom, in the playground and beyond the school gate to be more mentally, physically and emotionally active through our Interactively Active and Actively Interactive Digiwise programme.

• PHASE 2 - EQUIP young people with life skills, resilience and tools required to enable them to develop the rights and responsibilities of global citizenship though our digital programme.

• PHASE 3 - EMPOWER young people with aspirational hope and opportunity through further and higher education, employability and entrepreneurship, which will be taken forward and delivered as the final stage of the project.

34. The YC Digiwise ‘interactively active, actively interactive’ Curriculum for Life will

be available via a Digital Platform, Digital Passport and e-learning toolkit as part of the YC Digiwise Project.

35. The Digital Platform and Passport will provide a cohesive approach to bringing

together a collaboration of facilities, organisations, volunteers and young people through the Youth Charter Community Campus Model.

36. The YC Digiwise project is being developed with 10 key partners these are:

Amaven; UTC@MediaCityUK; Salford City College; University of Salford; Salford

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City Council; University of East London; Muhammad Ali Center; Louisville Metro Council; HAN University of Applied Sciences; Sierra Leone Ministry of Sport.

3.1 WHAT IS A COMMUNITY CAMPUS? 37. The Youth Charter Community Campus has been developed as a result of the

agency’s work in communities, urban, suburban and rural, locally, nationally and internationally. As part of 25 years of bidding, hosting and legacy of major games, the community campus provides a coordinated and holistic approach in the development, delivery and sustainability of young people and communities within the regeneration and renewal strategies of public, private and third sector agencies.

38. A Community Campus is made up of 7 key facilities, such as, schools,

community centres, youth clubs, sports centres, further and higher education institutions or any facility delivering a youth cultural engagement provision. Each facility is quality assured in the delivery of the Social Coach Leadership Programme and the Youthwise offer.

3.1.1 BENEFITS – YC LEGACY DEVELOPMENT GOALS 39. The outputs and outcomes of the Youth Charter Community Campus are

measured against the following Legacy Development Goals (LDGs):

• EDUCATION - attendance, attainment and performance

• HEALTH - physical activity, wellbeing and active lifestyle

• SOCIAL ORDER - civic rights and responsibilities

• ENVIRONMENT - community cohesion and quality of life

• VOCATION, TRAINING, EMPLOYMENT AND ENTERPRISE 40. The Youth Charter Legacy Development Goals are underpinned by:

• COLLABORATION & PARTNERSHIP

• EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, PARTICIPATION AND INCLUSION 41. The Youth Charter Legacy Development Goals are directly linked to UN 2030

Sustainable Development Goals.

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3.2 YC DIGIWISE ACADEMY – THE LANDING, MEDIACITYUK 42. As part of the development of the ICZ MediaCityUK Community Campus, the

Youth Charter is establishing a Digiwse Academy at The Landing in MediaCityUK. The Landing is home to the Youth Charter is located.

43. The Landing provides a place of work for digital SMEs and micro-businesses

next to large media and technology organisations based in the rapidly growing community of MediaCityUK.

44. The YC Digiwse Academy will see young people from Greater Manchester given

the opportunity to develop their digital skills with the companies based at The Landing.

45. The YC Digiwise 2 Work programme will be delivered as part of the development

of the YC Digiwsie Academy. Digiwise 2 Work is designed to help young people to get back into education, training and employment. The programme provides a pathway to employment or enterprise by supporting young people to grow in confidence through achieving the goals set for them, applying behaviour and performance principles.

3.3 DUKE OF YORK – INSPIRING DIGITAL ENTERPRISE AWARDS – iDEA

46. The YC Digiwise project will be linked to the Duke of York’s Inspiring Digital

Enterprise Awards (iDEA) programme which provides Bronze, Silver and Gold awards in the areas of Citizen, Worker, Maker and Enterprise.

47. The iDEA programme will provide young people participating in the YC Digiwise

project with:

• REWARD • RECOGNITION • RESPECT

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4.0 CASE STUDY 2: MEDIACITYUK COMMUNITY CAMPUS & CBBC SUMMER

SOCIAL FREE SCHOOLS EVENT

‘Interactively Active, Actively Interactive’ 48. The Youth Charter, in collaboration with CBBC, invited schools to participate in a

FREE preview event to the annual CBBC Summer Social Festival, which was held on the piazza at MediaCityUK on the 7th – 9th July 2017.

49. The CBBC Summer Social Schools event was delivered as part of the

development of the ICZ MediaCityUK Community Campus. The ICZ MediaCityUK Community Campus in Salford, provides a great example in the potential of multi-agency working. Developed as part of the University of Salford’s 50th Anniversary year to build stronger collaborations in four key areas of sport, health and wellbeing, creative and digital and industry and business, the Youth Charter’s Community Campus provided an ideal model in engaging the young people and wider community that reflects the social and cultural heritage of the university and its origins.

50. The Campus brings together the combined efforts of the University staff,

students and faculties in the recruitment of Social Coaches with the research, innovation and beacon project development to work beyond the University campus boundaries and as a result, integrate with the public, private and third sector agencies that make up Media City such as BBC, ITV, Salford City Council, Peel Holdings, the Lowry, Salford Foundation, Salford Lads and Girls Club, Salford City College and UTC@MediaCityUK.

51. The ICZ Media City Community Campus provides a social, cultural and

economic value for money impact with multi agency working, taking young people from physical activity and lifestyle development with aspirations and life-skills that will be enhanced and sustained within the apprenticeships, internships, employability and business start-ups that can be realised within the Media City boundaries. This will also have a wider impact and benefit to the on-going Greater Manchester Northern Powerhouse skills and infrastructure development.

52. The CBBC Summer Social Free Schools Event, included:

• 17 Schools • 680 Pupils • 70 School Staff • 75 Social Coaches

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53. The CBBC Summer Social FREE Schools event included the following ‘interactively active, actively interactive’ activities:

• CBBC Zone with activities related CBBC Programming • Learning with University of Salford • Football with MUFC Foundation • Rugby with Toronto Wolfpack • Sport with University of Salford • Yoga with GoLive Yoga

5.0 CONCLUSION – A LEGACY OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL… 54. The digital age is very much a part of 21st century youth culture, and we need to

ensure that young people are prepared for the multi-media and social media world through an ‘interactively active, actively interactive’ Curriculum for Life.

55. The social, cultural and economic benefits and the potential to provide a truly

holistic physical, mental and emotionally well-rounded British citizen through 21st century interactive mobile lifestyles presents as many challenges as it does opportunities going forward.

56. The YC Digiwise project provides an integrated intergenerational youth centred

approach that will see digital equality, diversity and inclusion through sport, art, culture and digital technology - an #legacyopportunity4all…