Children and young people are involved and empowered
Several measures are being adopted to increase youth voice in decision-making. These include:
- Youth Advisory Group for the Minister of Education: This group was set up to enable young people to have their say and influence the education system and issues that affect them. They have been involved in work to ensure children and young people live free from racism and discrimination.
- Establishment of Youth Advisory Panel: The Office of Film and Literature Classification has established a Youth Advisory Panel. The panel, shared with the Police, advises on a variety of projects on classification decision-making and research, and how they affect young people. Most recently, the panel made a submission to Parliament on an upcoming bill on commercial on-demand content. The panel also collaborates with the Classification Office on podcasts, videos for social media, and presentations. Upcoming work includes sharing their perspectives on drug use and misuse in film, and their expectations around restrictions and descriptive notes.
- Establishing a youth voice in environmental policy work: The Ministry for the Environment is looking at how it communicates with youth and how it can open channels for youth to feed their views into its work programmes, with an initial focus on climate, water, and the review of the resource management system.