Overview

There are nearly one billion children between the ages of 10 and 16 worldwide. Despite the fact that the future will rest on the shoulders of these children, they are not being consulted today about the use and design of the technologies that will determine how they work, play and communicate tomorrow. The objective of Junior Summit ’98 is to change that.

The Summit has been designed to engage children from all countries, the digitally rich as well as the digitally poor, with the promise to bring their deliberations to world leaders and to support their proposals with local actions. There will be two elements of the Junior Summit, an on-line forum that will begin September 1, and a 6-day meeting held at MIT in November.

The on-line forum will bring together nearly 3000 children from 139 countries and allow them to speak to each other in their native languages. In November, 100 of these children will represent the participants as ‘ambassadors’ and will travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to participate in the Junior Summit ’98 meeting. We will offer the children a platform to effect real change.

Young people are in a unique position because they have a different relationship with technology; a fresh viewpoint, one that is not possible for adults to naturally have. They understand it in ways which we cannot. We believe they have a great deal to contribute regarding decisions that will shape our technological future.

The Junior Summit will identify and address such issues as children’s rights, telecommunications access, individual privacy, personal health, environmental responsibility and world peace through the eyes of those not blinded by the past and destined to live in the future.

Children have a natural desire to change the world. More than ever before, they can. Moreover, they can create a digital world, where children are exposed to other children from other cultures, who speak other languages and who learn other things – but who have childhood in common and who are ready for change.

The Summit will distinguish itself in five ways:

It is about action, involving children as designers, critics and politicians. Funds, people and the full force of research will be offered to turn their ideas into actionable items.
It is global, with every intention of reaching the maximum number of children bridging barriers of geography, language and culture.
World industry will listen because of the sponsorship of global industry giants, as well as maximum media attention.
World politicians will listen because of the involvement of governmental and non-governmental organizations from around the world.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has pledged to create a new center for "future children", whose agenda, in large part, will come from the voices of this Summit.

Most adults in this world are deeply suspicious of people who do not look, talk and think like them. Breaking down these suspicions through first-hand experience of different countries and customs is costly and complicated by distance and language. The digital age is changing that. The objective of the Summit is to accelerate that change for the children of all nations, for the sake of the future.