If you haven’t read an article with a title along the lines of “Is THIS the digital election??!?!”, then you’ve probably been hiding under a media impenetrable rock. Politics and the media are near obsessed with discussing the role of technology as an electoral tool to engage with young voters. But is digital policy paying close enough attention to young people, how they use technology and what they want? It may be digital issues, as opposed to digital communication, that takes the lead in galvanising political engagement in the future; and if so it is young people’s views, not the effect that digital campaigning has on them, that should be the discussion focus.

In the two days following the introduction of the Digital Economy Bill to Parliament last week, more than 10,000 people had contacted their MP via the campaigning group 38Degrees to voice their concern and demand more rigorous examination of the debate. In addition to the concerns about the democratic process, campaigners are worried about how punitive internet disconnection measures for repeat piracy offenders would work. 

It seems the Bill is trying to swim against the tide. Internet service provider TalkTalk found that 80 per cent of the 18-34 year olds it surveyed in March would seek out new, as yet undetectable, ways to continue downloading if the bill, which has gained support from the Conservatives and, with some reservation, the Liberal Democrats, were implemented. They would also be more likely to indulge in a bit of online piracy themselves.  

Sweden’s Pirate Party, which campaigns solely on copyright issues, went from literal non-existence in the previous election to winning 7 per cent of the country’s vote in the 2009 European election. Their success, which the party’s top candidate has put down to popularity with the under 30s, was spurred on by opposition to policy initiatives that assisted in the identification of file sharers. The Pirate Party phenomenon has spread to Austria, Denmark, Finland, Poland and Spain, and there are current attempts to register parties in the UK and US.  

So is government legislating in the interests of young people? The only way to find out is to listen; Demos’ forthcoming publication Anatomy of Youth looks to discover the current mood of the 16-24 cohort. Digital policy needs to pay attention to the interests of those it will affect, and whether they believe the policy status quo of ownership and punitive measures are right (see Open Rights Group for more on this). Because the new and exciting digital debate isn’t about election techie tricks, but the future of information ownership. 

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