On 26th of September Hong Kong Youth Internet Governance Forum (HKyIGF) 2025 brought together a diverse group of passionate young leaders, tech experts, and community partners at Google’s Hong Kong office to envision a digital future shaped by and for youth. Under the theme “Envisioning SMART: Cultivating a Human‑Centric Digital Future,” the forum blended expert insights, interactive activities, and collaborative workshops, culminating in the release of the 2025 Hong Kong Collective Youth Statement on Internet Governance — a clear, youth-driven blueprint for Hong Kong’s digital path forward.
Setting the stage, opening remarks connected HKyIGF to the global Internet governance ecosystem and the WSIS+20 Review process, emphasizing youth as active partners, not just beneficiaries. A keynote from Google Cloud Hong Kong offered a window into the rapidly evolving world of AI innovation, framed by an ethos of responsibility, ethics, and user focus. This energized participants to think critically about technology’s role in society.
Beyond listening, participants engaged deeply through the Idea Wall – an exercise where they captured immediate thoughts around the five SMART pillars. Concerns ranged from closing Hong Kong’s homework gap and environmental impact, through demands for inclusive, multistakeholder participation and gender‑neutral AI, to calls for transparent accountability, strong resilience in cybersecurity, and building trust with tools like blockchain. Personal stories enriched the discussions, highlighting real challenges youth face while navigating the digital world.
The forum’s heart was the Youth Statement workshop, where groups refined these ideas into concrete recommendations. The 2025 Hong Kong Collective Youth Statement lays out youth priorities across the SMART dimensions:
- Ensuring the sustainability of affordable and equitable access with digital literacy;
- Embedding Internet governance in education and expanding youth leadership in policymaking processes;
- Demanding transparent, fair accountability and ethics training;
- Building both technical and social resilience; and
- Fostering trust through safeguarding user rights, especially for children and youth.
Each pillar reflects youth’s understanding that a truly human‑centric digital future must be inclusive, responsive, and protective – a future where technology serves people, not the other way round.
The forum was the space for debate and imagination. The Statement is the tangible roadmap youth offer to educators, policymakers, industry, and communities to turn words into action. To grasp how Hong Kong’s young voices envision and are ready to lead a SMART digital future, reading and sharing the Youth Statement is key.
This collective vision is part of a wider regional movement seen in forums like the Asia Pacific Youth IGF. Together, these youth-led initiatives affirm young people as co-creators of internet governance — shaping spaces that are sustainable, multistakeholder-valued, accountable, resilient, and trusted for generations to come.
To explore Hong Kong youth’s vision in detail, download the HKyIGF 2025 Report. This document provides insights and recommendations essential for shaping a SMART, human‑centric digital future with youth as co-creators at every step.