In December Emma Brown, Somerset Member of Youth Parliament, gave a presentation during the Somerset Safeguarding Children Partnership (SSCP) Forum Week as part of her campaign. The following article details her experience.

For the SSCP’s forum week on cyber bullying and online safety; due to my campaign I was invited to present my campaign as a voice to represent young people. Firstly, Jo Leek from public health presented her findings of the school’s survey which has some focused questions and answers on social media and how young people feel they behave on social media. These statistics will play a huge part of my ending campaign report. I then followed with a ten-minute presentation on what my campaign is, what I’ve done and why it is so important. To me, it was very important to highlight why young people need to be consulted when making new resources for social media as this increases their likely hood of working; this is called youth-led work.

I firstly introduced myself and my role as an elected member of youth parliament; then I highlighted how I believe that we need to change the way we present cyber bullying and online safety. As much as it is such an important issue. When creating resources and providing education we must focus on the positive rather than solely emphasising the problems of this. As creates a negative view around these topics. I also highlighted that its vital to reach out to a trusted adult if you see something that troubles you.

I finished off my part in the forum by reminding young people that they are available to join youth parliament!

Reflecting on this forum, I was very grateful to be given this opportunity to showcase youth parliament and all my work on my campaign! I would love to be able to do this again and maybe do a face-to-face presentation as I really enjoy public speaking.

Check out the SSCP website for more information!

Happy New Year!

Emma

Somerset Youth Parliament campaigns

Each Member of Youth Parliament works on a campaign during their term, which is supported by their Deputies and the Advisory Group. It allows us to understand what changes young people want to see in the communities they live in and makes sure that those views are heard by Somerset’s decision makers.

To find out more about our Member of Youth Parliament’s campaigns visit our Campaigns page.