Today’s adolescents are living their lives seamlessly on and offline, with information and education no longer the soul domain of the classroom, but digital platforms. A 2019 survey by UNESCO and Restless Development of more than 3,000 young people aged 15 – 24, found that social media, chatbots, vlogs and apps are the second most popular source of information about bodies, sex and relationships; outnumbered only by ‘friends and peers’.
To improve the digital health services used by adolescents and youth, WHO, UNESCO, UNFPA and UNICEF, have released Youth-centered digital health digital health interventions: A framework for planning, developing and implementing solutions with and for young people. It is aimed to help designers, developers, implementers, researchers, and funders seeking to create, implement and sustain thoughtful and effective digital health interventions for young people.
Chief of Education and Health at UNESCO, Christopher Castle, said the need for such a framework is critical and timely. “Digital media and broadband technologies offer outstanding new possibilities for education and service delivery. This is perhaps more important than ever in the context of COVID-19, with digital interventions increasingly being considered as an alternative to face-to-face interventions. With widespread school closures, online teaching and learning has been used on an unprecedented scale in 2020.”
While digital interventions have become increasingly popular in recent years, a recent literature review from UNESCO and the Institute for Development Studies found that there was limited quality control or standardization of content, and little solid evidence of what works.
WHO consulted groups of young people on the framework at the Switched On symposium, hosted by UNESCO earlier this year, with one young person saying, ‘It is essential to engage young people from the beginning of the process and at every step along the way’. Recognizing the importance of meaningful youth engagement, the framework highlights the unique considerations for undertaking the involvement of youth.