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The Chartered Institute for ITFirst Floor, Block DNorth Star HouseNorth Star AvenueSwindon SN2 1FAT +44 (0) 1793 417 417F +44 (0) 1793 417 444E pressoffice@hq.bcs.org.ukwww.bcs.org

Press Release

March 2010

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT calls on young people to participatein the political process

Savvy Citizens campaign teams up with YouthNet to get young peoplesavvier about information

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, is urging young people to get savvier about informationahead of the general election. The Institute believes that, although young people areamongst the technologically savviest in society, they risk becoming politicallydisenfranchised unless they harness technology to access political information and getinvolved in the political process, which includes registering to vote.The Institute has teamed up with YouthNet, the charity dedicated to providing information tohelp young people make informed choices, to encourage young people to take an activeinterest in politics through the Institute’s Savvy Citizens campaign.Elizabeth Sparrow said:“We are urging young people to visithttp://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/to get registered tovote, and participate via the internet to take control of their futures by being activelyengaged citizens. To help them take the first step we have created a top ten list of onlineresources highlighting sites and tools that allow citizens to be part of the political process.This guide, along with our Savvy Citizens campaign, is an easy way to find out just howstraightforward it is to get involved.”The top ten resources are listed below; the full document is at:http://savvycitizens.bcs.org/citizenship/topten1.Keyword alerts2.Council monitor 3.HearfromyourMP4.No. 10 petitions5.Parliament.uk

The British Computer Society (Registered Charity no. 292786)

6.Theyworkforyou7.RSS Reader 8.DirectGov9.Twitter 10.UpMyStreetA report, published by the Hansard Society on 3

March 2010, found that 34% of 18-24year olds thought that politics was a waste of time, compared to 21% of the population as awhole. Only 27% of that age group thought that they would be certain to vote at theelection. This came in the week that the Electoral Commission reported that over half of 18-24 year olds are not even registered to vote.

Fiona Dawe, Chief Executive of online charity YouthNet said:“Through our services we know that many young people are interested in politics and arepassionate about issues affecting all of us. What’s important is that politics is accessible topeople of all ages.” Elizabeth Sparrow, President, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said:“It is anachronistic that young people, probably the most digitally enabled in society, are notmaking use of the new platforms available to get savvy and participate in the politicalprocess. The latest Hansard report found that just one in 11 people (9%) had expressedtheir political view online, and fewer still had used either Facebook (4%) or Twitter (2%) tofollow a political group or politician. With the Savvy Citizens campaign the Institute hopesthat more young people will play an active part in their futures by using the internet to getsavvier about the political process.“Matthew Oliver, National Coordinator for Unlock Democracy’s Vote Match project said that“The most common reason people give as to why they don’t vote is that they don’t knowenough about where the parties stand on the issues that matter to them. However theinternet means that information is just a click away.”The Savvy Citizens site will focus on Citizenship for the coming weeks and will look ataspects of rights and responsibilities, the political process and the State and its services.On 11 March the campaign will be hosting a debate on the topic of

‘Will the internet determine the outcome of the election’

, which will be streamed live between 10.00am and11.00am athttp://www.ustream.tv/channel/citizenshippanel. It will also be tweeted live by@SavvyCitizens with #Citizenshippanel.The panel for the event is:

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Elizabeth Sparrow, President, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

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Paul Staines, Leading political blogger Guido Fawkes

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Jag Singh, Former advisor to Hillary Clinton; founder of political ad agencyMessageSpace

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Derek Wyatt, Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey

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Mark Thompson, Liberal Democrat blogger at Mark ReckonsMichael Cross, a freelance journalist and regular contributor to The Guardian, will chair thesession.The campaign can also be found on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Savvy-