Internet Engages Youths in Citizenship Activities

By Nicole Wallace

Young people use the Internet to register to vote, find volunteer opportunities, express their views on current events, and push for social change, according to a new report.

“Youth as E-Citizens: Engaging the Digital Generation” — published by the Center for Social Media at American University, in Washington — analyzes almost 400 Web sites, many of them run by nonprofit groups, designed to engage young people in civic activities.

Among the charities and Web sites profiled:

• Community Information Corps, a project in St. Paul in which teenagers create electronic maps showing the location of schools, health centers, transportation routes, public murals, and other resources in their neighborhoods.
• Global Response, an organization in Boulder, Colo., that sponsors letter-writing campaigns to promote environmental protection and the rights of indigenous people. The organization posts three versions of its sample letters on its Web site: one for third through eighth graders, one for high-school students, and one for college students.
• WireTap, an online magazine created by Alternet, a progressive online news service. At the end of 2003, the site featured interviews by young people of the Democratic presidential candidates.

To get the report: Go to http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/ecitizens/index.htm.