Reflections from the Digital Youth Work Conference 2026 by Lotte Vermeire
Digital youth work and questions of responsibility: A reflexive conversation with youth workers
On the 6th of January – Safer Internet Day – we attended the Digital Youth Work Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. The conference, organised by YouthLink Scotland, explored AI within the youth work sector, developing ethical partnerships with private tech companies, and how we can better support young people’s digital lives. Across keynotes and discussions, the focus was not only on how to be safe online, but on the broader role of digital youth work in fostering cyber resilience and critical engagement with technology.
A central thread? The importance of prevention and the role youth work play here as a critical, yet often under-supported and even unnoticed, actor. Youth work takes a participatory approach without much policy attention and funding[1]. This means youth organisations may lack the resources necessary to create meaningful, engaging environments where young people can grow at their own pace. This raises an important question of youth work’s role in an increasingly digitised society. During a roundtable discussion, or a 'café conversation', youth workers explored how we can support young people in navigating new technologies in responsible and meaningful ways. The discussion moved from a narrow focus on "responsible and safe" usage towards more fundamental considerations: what does it mean to support youth in a digitised world where platforms shape how they learn, communicate and even are evaluated? And what abilities do youth workers need to navigate this in the coming years?
Several key points emerged. Youth workers highlighted the need to "go back to the basics", creating safe spaces where young people can take the lead, where practitioners are willing to "play dumb" and let young people show you how to approach certain things online, and where critical thinking is stimulated. This is not straightforward. There is an ongoing negotiation of roles. Young people’s voices have been historically undervalued, however, we now position them as both victims of the online world and as guides for navigating our digital environments. It is crucial to reengage young people and look at them from a "value-based"-perspective, empowering them by attaching value to their voices and their experience-based knowledge.
Important here is the balance between safeguarding and autonomy. While digital youth work must address risks, such as online harms and exploitation, participants also stressed that youth workers should not police young people’s behaviour. As mentioned above, it should instead provide a safe, supportive space that enables experimentation and builds resilience to help them navigate their environment with critical agency. Questions of (digital) inclusion remain central here. Ensuring that young people, as well as youth workers, can participate digitally requires attention to access, skills, and confidence. Confidence is key, highlighting that youth workers should not shy away from technologies such as AI, as it is already embedded in young people’s lives. Instead, work from the core youth work principles: empowerment, participation and relational practice to support young people in critically and collectively making sense of their digital world.
written by Lotte Vermeire
[1] Pawluczuk, A., & Bacalso, C. (2026). Where is Digital Youth Work? Policy Invisibility and the Case for Recognition [Report].