IGF 2025

As digital platforms become integral to daily life, especially for young people, ensuring safe and age-appropriate online experiences has emerged as a global priority. Governments around the world are exploring developing regulatory frameworks aimed at protecting youth from harmful content, while striving to balance safety, security, and the protection of human rights and freedoms. Recent legislative efforts increasingly focus on age verification requirements for social media and adult content platforms. These laws would mandate digital platforms to implement robust age-checking systems designed to prevent users under a certain age from accessing inappropriate or potentially harmful content.

The summit will bring together policymakers, tech companies, youth advocates, and digital rights experts to discuss policy aspects such as:

- The effectiveness and challenges of age verification technologies
- The balance between child protection, privacy, and digital freedom
- Global best practices and lessons learnt
- Multistakeholder collaboration in designing inclusive and enforceable regulations

This intergenerational multistakeholder discussion will be guided by several policy questions:
- How can online safety for young of social media be enhanced in ways that are consistent with fundamental human rights and freedoms?
- What are the key technical, legal and ethical challenges in implementing age verification on social media platforms?
- How can regulatory frameworks for age verification on social media platforms be effectively monitored to ensure compliance and protect youth from harmful content?
- What are the privacy and cybersecurity risks of using client-side scanning or biometric tools for age verification, and how might these approaches undermine encryption, device integrity, and user trust?
- What role could international cooperation play in exploring interoperable and rights-respecting approaches to age verification across jurisdictions while ensuring alignment with cybersecurity best practices and human rights protections?
- What strategies can be implemented to enhance international cooperation and harmonization of age verification standards across digital platforms, considering the global nature of social media and the need for consistent protection of minors online, particularly in light of diverging regulatory approaches in different countries?

Draft agenda flow:
The Summit is designed as an interactive dialogue between current and future generations of experts and learners. After the panel - comprising senior and youth experts - sets the stage, the majority of the session will focus on open discussions with all participants, both in-person and online. The overall flow is:

1. Opening by the moderators
2. Welcome from the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Mr. LI Junhua
3. Expert panel sets the context 
   - Mr. Brendan Dowling, Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of Australia
   - Ms. Amina Ramallan, Manager, Nigerian Communications Commission (youth representative)
   - Mr. Martin Ruby, Director for Public Policy, Nordic Countries, Meta
   - Ms. Laura Rego, Brazil IGF, Student at Federal University of Pará; research fellow with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), (youth representative)
4. Open exchange 
5. Closing by the moderators

Onsite moderators:
- Ms. Lynn St. Amour, CEO, Internet Matters; IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group Chair 2016-2019; Former Head of ISOC;
- Ms. Jasmine Ko, Hong Kong Youth IGF
Online moderator: Ms. Phyo Thiri Lwin, Myanmar Youth IGF
Rapporteur: Ms. Afi Edoh, West African IGF

The summit's outputs will be action-oriented Messages from Youth to be part of the IGF 2025 Report for broad dissemination.