The Youth Roundtable was divided into two parts. A set of presentations to introduce the theme of cyberbullying and its implications on youth engagement in society and democracy. Following the presentations, speakers and the Chairperson were invited to join other young Parliamentarians in four break-out groups, with each group being tasked with generating a set of strategies to deal with cyberbullying as an issue. These break-out discussions were timed to last for 45 minutes and at the end of these discussions, the plenary reconvened to approve the recommendation from the Roundtable.

General Resources

IPSOS: Global Views on Cyberbullying

CPA: Mental Health Toolkit for Commonwealth Parliaments

Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth Podcast: Julia Gillard on Vaccine Inequality, Women in Politics, the mental health of young people and the Commonwealth

Bill summary: Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022

House of Commons Library: Analysis of the Online Safety Bill

The Parliamentarian: Related Articles

• The Parliamentarian 2020 Issue Three: UN at 75 article - experience of youth and how Parliamentarians can enagage with youth
• The Parliamentarian 2020 Issue Four: Leveraging Women and Youth for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future
• The Parliamentarian 2019 Conference Issue: Youth Roundtable – Strategies to deal with Youth Unemployment

This Youth Roundtable session was focused on the theme of cyberbullying, with special emphasis on its implications for youth engagement in society and democracy. The session, which was divided into two parts, was chaired by the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Saint Lucia.

The first part of the session consisted of presentations from two panellists. The first panellist, a Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, delivered remarks focusing on the online harm faced by UK Parliamentarians, and what support mechanisms are in place or being developed to respond to that harm. The second panellist, a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, delivered remarks focusing on online harassment of young people and elected officials in Nova Scotia, and the difficulties faced in preventing or addressing that harassment. The panellists’ presentations were followed by a question-and-answer session which saw enthusiastic and passionate input from delegates in the audience.

The second part of the session saw delegates divided into break-out groups, with each group being tasked with generating a set of strategies to deal with cyberbullying as an issue. The session then reconvened in plenary to hear the results of the break-out discussions. The break-out discussion themes and issues included what campaigns against cyberbullying should focus on, what success stories exist in the Commonwealth and beyond with respect to responses to cyberbullying, what mental health support can be offered to victims of online harm and how Parliaments can maintain oversight of social media companies whose platforms are used for cyberbullying.

At the end of this discussion, delegates then discussed the following recommendation and following a discussion of a number of alternatives, the recommendation was not explicitly endorsed or rejected but it was noted by all of the delegates in attendance:

“Commonwealth Parliaments should establish, or develop, existing mechanisms that support their younger Members when experiencing poor mental health or abuse online.”