UNICEF - Voices of Youth: Take action

Teen Second Life

In the virtual world of Second Life, young people tackle real children’s issues.

The ‘avatar’ of Mariel Garcia, UNICEF Voices of Youth representative from Mexico, at the World Fit for Children Festival in Teen Second Life.

In December 2006, Voices of Youth helped to educate Teen Second Life participants in a week-long creative festival based on the ‘World Fit for Children’ declaration on child rights. The declaration was adopted at the 2002 United Nations Special Session on Children.

Designed by children and organized by the New York-based non-profit Global Kids on their island within Second Life, the cyber-festival centred on a competition to build virtual structures in response to issues raised by the declaration: HIV/AIDS, education, health and child exploitation and abuse.

Voices of Youth representative Mariel Garcia of Mexico – communicating through her Second Life ‘avatar’ – was on hand to answer participants’ questions in various settings, including a teen forum and even a virtual dance party.

“I think that many of the children will make donations to organizations they support and start to raise awareness in their schools,” she says. “You don’t have to become a really big organization to fight poverty. You can just try to do something at a local level.” Mariel Garcia
Some 50 teenagers joined over a dozen teams to compete in the online building challenge. Their designs included an HIV/AIDS hospital, various school environments and a safe play area. Each entry included interactive information points, where participants could play games or simply click to learn more about issues facing the world’s children.

Three boys from Finland won the first prize of $200 for the school they built, which included virtual post-it notes featuring content from Voices of Youth. The financial incentive undoubtedly helped to draw almost 1,000 teens to the World Fit for Children competition, but money wasn’t the only appeal.

“I think it’s very interesting, because you wouldn’t think teenagers would take time to do this,” said Nafiza, a 16-year-old participant from New York. “But Second Life is basically a virtual reality game, so they are combining world issues with something we like. It’s like a mental challenge, as well as learning to do something good for the community.”

Voices of Youth’s Mariel hopes the main message the teens have taken away from the week is how to translate their energy into action in the real world.

“I think that many of the children will make donations to organizations they support and start to raise awareness in their schools,” she says. “You don’t have to become a really big organization to fight poverty. You can just try to do something at a local level.”

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