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EACEA National Policies Platform
Denmark

Denmark

5. Participation

5.9 E-participation

Last update: 28 November 2023

Denmark has no legal framework enabling and encouraging young people’s participation in political processes electronically.

The National Council for Children (Børnerådet) works to safeguard the rights of children and young people in Denmark. The national council for children speaks out on behalf of children in the public debate and participates in political consultations. Children and young people’s own description of their thoughts, opinions and experiences are important and can inform the policy decisions.

The Children and Youth Panel (Børne- og Ungepanelet), established in 1998, is the National Council for Children’s panel. The Children and Youth Panel is a regular online survey among 5.000 young people in the 8th form from 215 schools from all over Denmark. Twice a year, the Children and Youth Panel fill in a survey on a topic chosen by The National Council for Children (e.g. mental well-being, divorce, financial crisis). Conclusions from the surveys are used when the council formulates hearing statements and participate in the public debate.

The Media Council for Children and Young People (Medierådet for børn og unge) is a national council that classifies films for children under the age of 15 and provides guidance on children’s and young people’s use of computer games and digital media.

Since 2016, the Media Council has had a regular youth panel consisting of 10 average young people in the 13-15 age group with no experience from pupil’s councils, etc. The 10 young people came from all over Denmark.

The Youth panel dealt with young people’s use of social media and digital technologies. The panel published its recommendations to adults on how to guide young people in the use of social media. The panel had no political decision-making competences. The panel presented their recommendations to the minister of culture and other relevant stakeholders.

As of 2018, The Media Council has changed the composition and structure of the youth panel, since it is difficult to gather the young people. Every year, the Media Council and its partners select an entire class based on Save the Children’s school network. The class advises the Media Council and partners regarding social media and digital technologies.

In the process of developing the recommendations, the Media Council consults the Centre for Digital Youth Care’s online chat group, Gruppechat dk, as a measure to reach vulnerable young people and to improve the representativeness of the recommendations.