1 July 2002

How ICTs can connect young people and politics

By Lydia Howland

Lack of interest in mainstream politics, particularly among young people, has become an issue of widespread concern. Those attempting to secure the youth vote may instinctively look to digital technology, having watched text messaging and computer games appear to dominate young people's lives. This is a false assumption, as new research by Demos shows. Technology may well have a part to play but the novelty of, say, voting online will not make politics any more attractive.

Although the Local Government Association reported a 4 per cent rise in local election turnout in 2002, the total turnout was still only around 40 per cent. In line with a 10-15 year trend, the lowest turnout was among 18-25-year-olds. This 'switching off' from electoral politics among the young is seen as further justification for the numerous government task forces to investigate and address voter apathy. These initiatives have so far failed to appreciate that low youth turnout is a symptom of a far deeper problem: disempowerment. Until this root cause is understood and addressed, efforts to reverse the electoral trend are unlikely to succeed.

Young people are often very committed to single-issue campaigns and active in civil society or community life. Concluding that your vote does not count is very different from believing that politics in the broader sense does not matter. In this respect, young people are not vastly different from others: turnout has fallen across every age group in the last 20 years, apart from those over 65.

So how can information and communication technologies (ICTs) can strengthen the link between young people and the democratic process? There are characteristics of new and emerging technologies that make them particularly valuable allies in this agenda, but to succeed technology must be used as more than a gimmick. Equally, there are inherent problems with ICTs that require careful management and negotiation to prevent them from inhibiting their potential.

Part of the solution may lie in innovative uses of ICTs, if they can enable young people to engage more effectively with political issues, processes of public decision-making and civil society. Information technology is pervasive in most young people's lives in a way that formal politics is not. By yoking the two together, there is a chance that a more reciprocal relationship between citizen and state can be cultivated. If participation and involvement begins during youth it is more likely to be sustained throughout adulthood.

Democracy is based on the idea of engagement in dialogue and decision-makings, yet for young people something is lost between the rhetoric and the reality. Inviting young people to take part in consultation exercises or sit on youth forums pays lip service to promoting participation but frequently fails to deliver actual change. ICTs can enable young people to engage with adults on more equal terms and reduce some of the inequalities of power, self-expression and access that currently hinder their public involvement.

The anonymity of the internet can encourage young people to express politically sensitive or contentious issues that might not be brought out in face-to-face situations. It can also neutralise some of the advantages associated with age, race, faith, gender, ability and background. Anonymity can help to build confidence and empowerment, but exploiting ICTs to promote this is a staging post and not a long-term solution in itself.

The ultimate goal is to create a climate in which the input of young people is not only valued, but also translated into genuine influence and responsibility. ICTs could be instrumental in achieving this, but to be effective they require a strong underlying commitment to promoting young people's participation in public life.

This means that individuals and organisations will have to reconfigure their relationship to young people and incorporate them into systems - including IT systems - previously reserved for adults. It will involve recognition across all sectors of public life that young people are entitled to make an input into the mechanisms that govern them and that, if their opinions are to be canvassed, then their responses cannot be ignored.

Young people are developing innovative ways of using technology to empower themselves and engage with political culture. In many cases they have been quick to capitalise on the principles of interaction made possible by ICTs. They are using them to share knowledge, power and responsibility across networks, often in ways that preserve their informality and flexibility. In the light of these examples, the bigger question becomes: How might these developments help to change civic culture and the wider opportunities offered by governance to citizens and young people?

The location of free ICT facilities should be reviewed and refined to reflect the kinds of environments where young people spend significant amounts of time. This might involve giving young people free access to technology in cinemas, shopping malls, leisure centres and youth shelters.

The popularity of text messaging and telephone voting (made popular by programmes such as Big Brother and Pop Idol) could be harnessed to political effect. Given young people's interest in single-issue politics, mobile phones could be used to vote in referendums on key issues of the day, providing certain outcomes could be guaranteed as a result.

Similarly, government and the relevant industries need to consider the role that digital and interactive television might play in supporting greater youth participation in the e-democracy agenda. The Audit Commission should review the effectiveness of local authority arrangements for consulting and involving young people in local democracy and programmes to improve service quality and delivery.

Ultimately, ICTs must become the tool for changing the identity of political institutions themselves. Rather than simply add-ons, better-designed and strategic use of ICT initiatives should help enable the kind of organisational renewal necessary to endow political systems with relevance and meaning, not just for young people, but for the whole of a rapidly changing society.

Logged Off? How ICT can connect young people and politics is published by Demos in partnership with the Carnegie Young People Initiative and can be ordered on 020 8986 5488. Lydia Howland is a researcher at Demos.