2025 Canada Youth Internet Governance Forum

Welcome to the 2025 Canada Youth Internet Governance Forum!

Date: Friday, 14 November 2025

Location: Teraanga Commons & hybrid online

Join youth from across Canada for the 2025 Canada Youth Internet Governance Forum, a national event bringing young leaders, policymakers, and digital innovators together to shape the future of the Internet.
This year’s Forum explores key themes in AI governance and human rights, cybersecurity and Internet resilience, online harms and digital safety, and youth engagement in digital policy.

Connect, learn, and lead the conversation on how Canada’s youth can build a safer, more inclusive, and rights-based digital future.

Info: Ticket registration at sign in table by volunteers. Swag bags and name tags provided at registration. Food in gathering space to allow networking following registration.

Info: As artificial intelligence continues to evolve and shape every aspect of society, ensuring it is developed with a human rights framework has become a global imperative. This panel will explore what it means to embed human rights into the governance frameworks of current and future AI systems. Panelists will examine key issues including transparency, accountability, and algorithmic bias, as well as the impact of AI on privacy, equity, and freedom of expression.

With perspectives from youth leaders, technologists, policy experts, and human rights advocates, the session will address critical questions: How can international human rights standards be practically applied to AI development and deployment? What role should youth and marginalized communities play in shaping these frameworks? And how can Canada position itself as a global leader in ethical AI governance?

Through inclusive dialogue and actionable insights, this panel aims to help define a path toward AI governance that protect

Info: Sponsored lunch. An overview of actionable Young Digital Leaders of Canada initiatives will be showcased in 5-minute Lightning Talks once attendees are settled with their food (talks to include AI4Good Youth Hubs, High School/Undergrad Guide, School Connectivity Initiative, Digital Literacy Course, Grassroots Toolkit).

Info: The Internet’s infrastructure is under constant threat from malicious actors exploiting vulnerabilities to launch cyberattacks, spread disinformation, or steal personal data. At the heart of internet stability and security is the Domain Name System (DNS)—the backbone that translates web addresses into IP addresses. This panel will bring together experts who manage and safeguard the DNS to discuss how we can keep the Internet resilient in the face of growing threats.

Panelists will examine how DNS abuse—including phishing, botnets, and domain hijacking—is detected and mitigated, and how collaborative efforts among registries, registrars, policymakers, and civil society are essential to securing the global digital ecosystem. With a focus on youth engagement and digital literacy, the session will also explore how young Internet users can play an active role in strengthening online safety and trust.

By highlighting real-world challenges and solutions, this discussion will provide a behin

Info: Refreshments available.

Info: Keeping the Internet safe for all users–specifically women and children–has become a global digital policy conversation. This panel will discuss the concept of online harms broadly and key components of online harms impacting women and children. Attendees will learn about types of online harms, how online harms impact women at a higher degree than men, and global conversations surrounding protecting children online.

In 2024, Canada introduced Bill C-63, otherwise known as the Online Harms Act, however, this bill died on the Order Paper once Parliament was prorogued in the first half of 2025. Now, an opportunity for a renewed Online Harms Act might include a more defined scope for online harms which protects women and children without limiting freedom of expression online.

By examining future Canadian digital policy, the panel and attendees will have an opportunity to express their views on this pressing topic. These will be recorded in the 2025 Canada Youth IGF’s Post-Forum Report, a

Info: Youth engagement is a complex subject. Youth can either be meaningfully engaged, collaborated with, and included in digital policy discussions, or they might be tokenized participants. This workshop will be split into two parts: a panel of digital policy professionals working in youth engagement, and a workshop where youth will be split into groups to discuss meaningful engagement in digital policy.

The first panel will focus on clear examples and techniques in effective youth engagement efforts in digital policy, as well as concrete advice to youth attendees on how to have their voices heard by decision makers. The workshop will then be co-led by a member of Youth IGF Canada and a panelist per group to draft clear recommendations and methods in meaningful youth engagement which will then be shared around the room.

Clear recommendations from this workshop will be prominently featured in the Post-Forum Report, which will create a tool for stronger youth engagement in Canadian digita

Info: We will convene for those interested to be part of our first ever Annual General Meeting to ratify our Bylaws.

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Host or Publisher Youth Internet Governance Forum Canada