Where are you from?
United Kingdom
Why do you like being a national youth panelist?
I think it’s brilliant being a national youth panellist, because it gives young people (like me) the chance to get your voice heard about matters of the internet concerning us.
What is your favourite pastime activity?
I enjoy outdoor sports, in particular walking, and I’ve recently completed the 35 mile Ten Tors event and the Tour de Mont Blanc (this summer) in 2 weeks. I love sailing, and a couple of weeks ago on a school trip, I sailed on a challenger yacht to Holland and around the coast of England. I also like more relaxing hobbies like reading, watching films, playing guitar and piano (and ukelele!), and I’ve had a flying lesson which I enjoyed… and also shopping!
Twitter or Facebook?
Facebook
What do you hope to get out of the Pan-EU Youth panel?
I hope it will be an interesting, informative and productive panel, where we all share and form our opinions on the internet and how we use it. Also, I hope it will be a fun and enjoyable experience, as well as an opportunity for getting my point across and maybe helping others to form opinions (or to take mine on board). I hope to meet and make lots of friends along the way!
A day without your computer or a day without your mobile phone?
No computer
Open profile or Closed profile?
Closed profile
Which modern media interest you the most?
I’m interested in the new picture sharing sites, because I don’t have one, but they seem to always be in the news and are undoubtedly very popular.. so I’d like to know why and find out more about the sites- e.g ‘Flickr’, and why they are so different to sharing photos on Facebook or Twitter. On a personal level though, I now (after a long time) have a Facebook account, and so I go on that a lot, and it interests me.
What is the biggest threat to online safety?
People thinking that ‘internet safety’ is stupid and pointless and not really taking it seriously, or people (particularly, in fact, specifically, young people) who feel the protections on Facebook and Twitter and other media are for kids and think it’s cool to go without. It’s not so much the settings, it’s the mentality that there are settings, and people pushing the settings away.