Where young people go to seek help and advice

Last week YouthNet, the online charity which seeks to engage, inform and inspire young people through the Internet, launched its latest report: Life Support: Young people's needs in a digital age; at the House of Commons.

I found the accompanying press release highly illuminating, in that it explains phenomenon I've observed up close in my own children (who are most definitely Digital Natives, "those under the age of 25, who've been surrounded by computers, the internet, mobile phones and digital video games since a pre-school age") and at more of a distance with several of our client communities.

For example, Student Babble is a social networking site we developed for 14 to 16 year olds to network Facebook-style and overcome fears about going on university summer schools. When it was launched at the beginning of June, we were literally floored by the amount of traffic to the site, immediately it was launched. All this despite the fact that the students were in thick of exams and had to grapple with many other competing pressures. Amazingly, drop out rates for summer schools this year were slashed by 12% on last year's figures.

But what really caught my eye about this press release is its emphasis on the Internet as a place where young people go to seek help and advice. According to the research the Internet holds its own against family and friends when the subject is straightforward. But once young people are looking for help and advice on potentially sensitive issues, where do they go? To the Internet, which gives them anonymity when they need it and again, immediate access to a huge amount of information. At this point you have to ask yourself, "But how do we guarantee that they access the best quality information?"

We are starting to see approaches from clients who want to marry social networking with advice giving for young people. Based on this research there couldn't be a better time to make this move.