From 12^th-14^th November, we attended the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Paris, France along with four other winners of the iFocus competition organized by the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong. The Internet Governance Forum is an annual international summit held by the United Nations to gather people from around the world to discuss the use and governance of the internet. This year, the theme of the forum is 'Internet of Trust', which explores how we can use the internet truthfully and fairly. Held at UNESCO headquarters, throughout three days, we listened into different sessions covering topics such as human rights, AI ethics, media content etc. Other focused topics of discussion include 'The key emerging technologies', 'Media and Contact' and '5G, IoT and AI- Addressing Digital Inclusion and Accessibility'. These topics were socially-significant and there's certainly a need to gather different people's opinion.

Speakers from all around the world shared their thoughts on different topics and informed us what they have been doing in specific areas. For example, Ms Monica Rosina works at Facebook and she told us that Facebook has been using algorithms to filter inappropriate content. We learned a lot through listening, as well as raising questions to the panel during the large scale session about media & content. The speakers are very willing to answer our questions and it is surely a memorable experience to treasure. As the youngest participants of the forum, we encountered some topics which were completely new to us, such the CLOUD act, which enhanced our knowledge and raised our awareness toward internet global issue.

Most importantly, the IGF provides a platform for adults there to hear the views from us as youth participants, as we sometimes hold very different interpretations and thoughts that adults may not have thought of before.

Apart from participating in plenary sessions, we also had a booth in the IGF village to introduce what we had done in the iFocus competition to help the elderly in our community. We hope to influence others to use technology to help those in need as well. We met a lot of people with diverse background. Apart from maintaining our booth, we also went to the booths of other organisations, where we got to know more about what others have been doing, for example with respect to internet safety, the new IPv6 address etc. All in all, the iFocus IGF Paris Trip is one of the most valuable experience we have ever had, which broadened our horizon and stimulated us to think sensitively and critically.

Reported by: Bella Chong & Jasmine Fong