Bringing Young People to the Table is about More Than Style... It’s about Authenticity
Impactful change requires reaching everyone in the community — including youth. That’s why we established the SE2 Youth Council, a powerhouse of diverse Colorado teens.
Monthly meetings are a platform for vibrant dialogue. Council members share invaluable insights with our youth advisor, providing insights on youth trends and lived experiences, brainstorming, reviewing campaign materials, and providing critical feedback. We trust their expertise in crafting messages that connect with their peers.
Their voices are woven into the fabric of our campaigns, ensuring authenticity and effectiveness.
This year, the Youth Council champions the theme: “Building Healthy, Resilient, Tobacco-Free Communities.” Partnering with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s tobacco control program, we’re developing an outreach strategy that empowers youth to become active participants in the campaign itself.
This dedicated group will play a pivotal role in crafting a powerful, persuasive, and youth-centered vape prevention campaign.
Why the youth perspective is important
More than 25 years of experience has taught us a critical truth: diverse voices, especially those of young people, are essential from the start. Including Gen Z and Gen Alpha in our campaigns isn’t just about meeting their standards; it’s about creating work that resonates deeply.
The Youth Council holds us accountable for inclusivity and fresh perspectives. They help us consider aspects we might miss, leading to a true understanding of our audience.
Gen Z craves authenticity and unique information. Forget generic health messages – they want inspiration to forge their own path to healthy living. Considering their distinctive style injects a deeper layer of authenticity into our work.
But it’s not just about style. Young people are a wellspring of knowledge about what we don’t know. Even as a twenty-something youth advisor, I’m constantly surprised by their insights.
Our Youth Council members are passionate about creating a healthier future. They’re a diverse group, with some interested in communications, others in creative design, and some in research and data. Regardless of their specific interests, we provide comprehensive learning opportunities throughout the entire campaign development process.
Youth insight helps us understand their lived experience
While developing content for the Forward Together — a campaign that seeks to build youth protective factors by strengthening relationships with peers and trusted adults – youth council members revealed the latest slang that parents might miss entirely. My proposed phrases for explanation were relics from my past, while theirs reflected the current reality on TikTok and beyond. This project highlighted how young people are constantly evolving, defying assumptions.
The Youth Council also provided key insights into youths’ lived experience with vaping. While we knew about the use of disguised devices, we weren’t aware of the intense policing, the students’ feeling of being targeted, and their desperate need for resources to quit. By listening, we discovered a high awareness of vaping risks, but a lack of clear next steps, specifically around cessation and support resources
Engaging young people allows them to contribute to the conversation about the things they face every day. It gives them a platform to collaborate and develop valuable skills. Their involvement fosters buy-in and trust, leading them to share our message authentically with peers and loved ones. Since they were part of the creation process, they trust and champion the message.
What have we learned so far?
This blog is your direct line to the experiences and perspectives of young people that make up the SE2 Youth Council. Through monthly meetings and check-ins, we capture their voices and share them here, updated regularly.
February Council Meeting: Cracking the Code on Nicotine Devices
Our mission: understand the landscape of youth nicotine use. We focused on Zyn, a popular product that delivers nicotine through an oral pouch.
The Buzz: Most council members haven’t seen Zyn used in schools – but vaping is still very common. However, those who are aware of Zyn suspect its growing popularity stems from its stealthy nature, being almost undetectable. The telltale signs that a young person is using Zyn Pouches? Used pouches littering trash cans (or worse, the floor nearby) and tell-tale bulges in teens’ mouths, reminiscent of dip.
March Council Meeting: Decoding Teen Lingo for Authentic Messaging
Authenticity matters. To connect with Gen Z, we need to speak their language. So, we asked about “nic-sick” – a term describing the unpleasant stomach feeling from too much nicotine.
The Verdict: A surprising miss! Most council members hadn’t heard the term, with only one encountering it during a school presentation. While alternative nicotine-related phrases remained elusive, we uncovered a new gem: “hitting blinkers,” which refers to using a vape even when the battery’s dead (when the light typically blinks).
April Council Meeting: Empowering Young Leaders to See Through Marketing Hype
Empowered by the science of positive messaging, our youth council tackled manipulative tactics in advertising during their April meeting. They learned to decode marketing messages, from fear-mongering to confusing design elements, by anlyzing ads.
What we observed: Council members showcased their media savvy by identifying tricks like limited time offers in retail ads, scare tactics in cyber security ads, and confusing design choices on paper ads. While subtler manipulations might slip by, they confidently called out the most common tactics. This equips them to make informed decisions based on facts, not marketing hype.
By fostering critical thinking skills, we’re empowering young leaders to make informed decisions based on facts – and not marketing hype – so they’ll become powerful advocates for themselves and their communities!
Do you know a young leader who would be interested in contributing their voice to the SE2 youth council? Send them to the online application or reach out to me at Gracie@SE2ChangeForGood.com
Protecting Youth From Online Threats Starts with Conversation
Recently I had the opportunity to talk with Brooke Istook, vice president/youth and communities at Thorn, a nonprofit and recent SE2 client. Thorn works to protect youth from online exploitation by educating young people and their parents and caregivers, and builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse.
We talked about how Thorn’s focus and priorities have changed since the organization was created a decade ago and what it is doing to respond to an evolving landscape in which youth are increasingly at risk.
SM: What is Thorn currently doing to educate parents and caregivers about online risks so they can better protect youth?
BI: There is a lot that parents don’t understand about the technology their kids are using to communicate because they don’t have a shared experience. Unlike their kids, most parents didn’t have to worry about their private messages or private moments being documented and shared online for all the world to see.
Today, young people are growing up online, and that includes how they experience transformational phases like puberty. In many respects, doing things like sharing nudes is considered part of normal sexual exploration in the digital age. So, we recommend that parents and other caregivers have conversations with kids early and often so that they understand the risks of sharing personal information or private images.
SM: How widespread is the problem?
BI: Kids are engaging online sooner, some as young as 9 years old. A quarter of 9- to 12-year-olds say they have had an online sexual interaction, and one in six have shared intimate images. This behavior puts kids at risk of their images being shared with others and potentially being groomed by a predator. Half of kids who have shared nudes of themselves say they shared them with someone that they only knew online, while 40% believe that the person they sent them to is an adult.
SM: What do parents and caregivers need to think about when having conversations with kids?
BI: They need to understand the role that shame plays in these conversations and approach their child with empathy and understanding. Online situations, particularly those that are sexual in nature, can be wrought with shame and groomers use that to influence and manipulate youth. Many young people are reluctant to let parents know when they have shared something online, or if someone they don’t know is communicating with them.
Parents need to be curious about digital safety and talk to their kids about healthy relationships and how to make friends and avoid risks online. They also need to let their kids know that it is never their fault if someone tricks or coerces them, and to come to them if they have any concerns about interactions they have had online.
So, the message for younger kids is don’t share private information or photos of yourself or someone else, and if anyone makes you uncomfortable you should not feel bad. It’s never your fault, and you can always come to me if you feel scared or concerned.
SM: What is Thorn doing to educate and support older youth who might be sharing nudes more frequently, even as part of a dating relationship?
BI: It’s important for older youth to be able to identify red flags so they can protect themselves — whether that’s being involved in an unhealthy relationship or being approached and groomed online by someone they don’t know. They need to understand the risks of sharing nudes with a friend, partner or someone else, because those images can be reshared without their consent. In the wrong hands, they can also be used as leverage to get them to do something they don’t want to do such as sharing more images, which we refer to as sextortion.
Parents also need to talk to their kids about not resharing photos they receive from someone and to model good behavior by avoiding victim-blaming if something happens. We know that half of kids and parents blame the person in the photo when a nude is leaked. Blaming the victim leads to the dangerous dynamic of youth staying silent when something bad happens to them out of fear of judgment. In 2017, 85% of victims of sextortion cited embarrassment as their reason for not getting help.
SM: How is Thorn partnering with tech companies to keep kids safe online?
BI: We work with industry partners and develop technologies to make reporting resources more accessible when youth need help. Often, social media platforms are the only ‘person’ that a child talks to when something is going wrong — such as when they are being asked to send nudes or other information they don’t want to share. If a child feels that something is wrong, there is a critical moment when they can decide to report the interaction to the platform. The platform needs to be able to immediately provide them with support and resources to help them.
Many platforms are moving to make these safety features easier to use — and parents should know about them. For example, Apple is rolling out a new safety feature in its messaging app that can be turned on in a child’s device. The feature detects when a nude image is about to be sent or is received and messages support and alternatives to the child. It just puts a bit of friction in the path and provides youth with an off-ramp to a difficult conversation.
These are the types of features that will help to make young people’s online worlds a bit safer, which we will continue to pursue in the coming years.
To learn more about ways parents and caregivers can support and protect youth online, visit Thorn.org.
Violent Media and Our Children’s Future: How Connection can Break the Cycle
By Evyn Batie
A girl stands on a platform with two boys on her sides. She faces a group of peers who stand in a straight line facing her and she begins to sing in a language I don’t recognize.
She finishes her song and then begins to yell out commands for a game of Red Light, Green Light. It takes me longer than it should to realize what’s happening. I watch, slightly confused and then alarmed, as the boys start yelling “PEW PEW” and the line of kids running at them begins falling down “dead.”
“Absolutely not!”
My shout ends the game, for now, and I gather my students, aged 6 to 11, for a conversation about appropriate games and how their re-enactment of “Squid Game,” the series about a deadly survival game, is not one.
After a year of working as a program lead for an after-school youth program, this conversation is one I’ve grown used to. The young children’s love for horror ranges from “Five Nights At Freddy’s,” a violent survival game where the player is attacked by murderous Chuck E. Cheese-style animatronics, to creepypasta, horror-focused internet urban legends. I often wonder what this exposure to horror and violence means for their future worldview.
There are three major factors at play as we as a society watch our children grow:
- Whether violent media leads to an increase in violence
- How COVID took away children’s ability to socialize
- How social media impacts how children interact with the world
Studies have explored for years whether violent media increases violence in children. While these studies have shown that media violence doesn’t necessarily promote violence, it has been proven to increase aggressiveness. These acts of aggression, coupled with children who, due to pandemic restrictions, have been undersocialized, will likely become an increasing problem in upcoming years.
A Forbes article reminds everyone to expect changes in children’s behavior because many lost formative education years. Children who lost preschool or early elementary education to online education and COVID precautions are not as equipped to socialize with their peers in healthy or functional ways.
So now we have a group of children more prone to aggression and more likely to lack empathy. Then we add in social media.
Social media gives all of us a platform to display our thoughts and feelings and online anonymity has proven a powerful contributor to problematic behavior — even for adults.
And for children, who mimic behavior to find themselves, this platform becomes a battleground for escalating dangerous behaviors and tendencies. YouTube is often left unmonitored by parents who trust their children to search for safe content. TikTok makes trends out of destruction; topics like defacing public property become hashtags.
So how do we as a society raise children as they are in the world as it is?
Do we take their devices and demand they make some friends?
Do we track all of their behaviors?
While no one really knows the answer, I am not an advocate for simply monitoring your children’s internet history. In my experience, it just makes them sneakier.
Rather, I am an advocate for open, honest, age-appropriate conversations. The best thing you can do to help your child is to talk with them. Discover their interests, watch videos with them, ask them about the movies and shows their friends like or that they hear about at school. This openness carries over to other hard conversations in the future. This connection is how to show your child you care.
“Hey Evyn, will you draw Huggy Wuggy for me?” A seven-year-old girl approaches me, shyly, during art time. I ask her to show me a picture and we do a quick internet search. I am expecting a cutesy cartoon character. I am greeted by a furry blue monster with red lips and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, dripping with blood.
I tell her no and ask if we can look for different drawing ideas instead. Together.
Evyn Batie is a college senior and youth advisor for SE2. Evyn is also employed with a non-profit after-school program.
Facebook is the New Big Tobacco
The recent coverage of Facebook’s manipulative practices is hardly an anomaly. Through its 17-year history, the company has built its fortunes through exploitation, manipulation, and deceit.
Its own internal research showed that its algorithm radicalizes and polarizes many of its users. It helped foment the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It amplifies misinformation that has increased vaccine hesitancy and harmful conspiracy theories. And it has helped radical leaders to come to power by turning a blind eye to disinformation networks.
There is a precedent for this type of corporate behavior.
For decades, Big Tobacco has preyed on people through its deceitful and manipulative practices. The tobacco industry knew perfectly well, as evidenced through a trove of research exposed in the 1990s, that it was addicting kids and killing its customers. Big Tobacco put profits over people.
And just as businesses and communities had to make a choice in the 1990s – to either ignore the clear evidence that tobacco was killing people to make a profit or to take a stand against Big Tobacco – we need to make a choice today.
Back then, most of our competitors in the public affairs sector happily cashed tobacco industry checks. It was easy money but we never took it.
In fact, our roots are in the anti-tobacco movement. More than 20 years ago, CEO Susan Morrisey led the state’s tobacco prevention coalition and hired SE2 to support the nonprofit’s work. She chose SE2 based on our already strong record in the tobacco prevention movement at that time.
SE2 helps clients create meaningful, positive change. We collaborate with clients to improve teens’ mental health and wellness, and bring people together to solve today’s toughest issues.
Facebook and its Instagram platform contribute to teens’ anxiety and depression and amplify content that further divides society.
To put it bluntly: Facebook’s actions stand in direct conflict with our values and our clients’ goals. And so, we can no longer idly sit by and ignore the intentional harm that Facebook commits.
Until Facebook institutes meaningful changes that contribute to our collective good, we will no longer recommend to our clients that they spend money on its products, including paid promotion of their content on Facebook or Instagram. Furthermore, SE2 will no longer spend its own money on Facebook’s platforms. (In just the past two years, our own spending on Facebook platforms totaled over $15,000.)
Just as we turned down Big Tobacco dollars in the late-90s – joining public health’s fight to protect people against deadly products – we now choose to stop supporting Facebook.
We recognize that we’re a small fish and that the revenue Facebook loses from our decision to pull advertising dollars off its platform won’t put the tiniest dent in its earnings.
But when is it enough? For us, it’s now.
We’re asking our clients, other agencies, and advertisers to join us (and the dozens of other human rights, public health, nonprofit and private businesses) in demanding change.
Not giving Facebook our money is one small thing we can do to live our values, but, perhaps more importantly, it also brings greater public awareness and public pressure on Facebook to change and will protect us from other digital media networks that attempt the same harmful tactics.
Together we can solve our world’s biggest challenges – and Facebook is one of the main problems right now.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss and debate this decision with our clients, partners and colleagues across the industry. Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Let’s talk.
Eric Anderson | Eric [at] SE2ChangeForGood [dot] com
Susan Morrisey | Susan [at] SE2ChangeForGood [dot] com
Brandon Zelasko | Brandon [at] SE2ChangeForGood [dot] com
Want a Bigger Impact with Your Public Health Campaign? Partner with Other State Agencies that Share Your Goals
Excerpted from original story on GovLoop — a publication that serves a community of more than 300,000 government leaders by helping them to foster collaboration, learn from each other, solve problems and advance in their government careers.
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Across the country, state-run agencies create programs and resources to advance their missions — whether those are public health, higher education, child care, transportation or something else. Their goals typically center on supporting the health, happiness, prosperity and well-being of their states and residents.
During this process, clarity of purpose and collaboration are essential, as they seek to impact the same audiences from issue to issue: their states’ residents. However, cross-collaboration between departments can be elusive. It is inefficient and frustrating when the actions of one department or agency greatly impact the others. The solution comes in working to advance shared objectives across departments and programs, helping to achieve greater collective impact.
Colorado’s Department of Human Services (CDHS) and Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) are collaborating on a public health behavior change campaign that seeks to address the upstream factors that influence young people’s decisions to engage in healthy behaviors. The effort focuses on building stronger relationships among youth and between youth, their parents, and other adults in the community.
Visit GovLoop to see three strategies CDHS and CDPHE used to create a smooth process that helped to launch one of the most ambitious intra-agency public health campaigns in our state’s history, called Forward Together.
