How Youth Voices are Reclaiming the Digital Future (with Ava Smithing)

Ava Smithing, Advocacy Director at the Young People’s Alliance, returns to Scrolling 2 Death to share an exciting new project. If you missed her previous episodes, Ava is a leading youth voice for nonpartisan policy solutions for safer technology development. Growing up in the early days of social media, she experienced firsthand how harmful algorithms can shape young users’ lives - even contributing to her own struggle with an eating disorder. Now, she’s turned that experience into a mission to raise awareness and drive change.

In this episode, Ava dives into two key concerns:

• The dangers of engagement algorithms and the harmful content they amplify.
• The erosion of privacy, as tech companies quietly collect and share user data across apps and sites to influence what we see and buy online.

To elevate youth perspectives, Ava has launched a new podcast, Left to Their Own Devices, which explores the real stories of young people navigating life online. But the show doesn’t just highlight the harms; it imagines what a healthier, more ethical digital world could look like.

Tune in as Nicki from Scrolling 2 Death and Ava discuss why young people shouldn’t just be consulted about technology’s future -  they should be guiding us all