YFEN was born out of a colloquium on youth and censorship at The New School University on May 3, 2002. The colloquium brought together 43 advocates and scholars from the fields of free expression, sexuality education, youth journalism, and media literacy, including 10 young activists and writers, to discuss the increasing trend toward censoring young people's access to expression and information on the Internet, in art and entertainment, and in schools. Seeing there was enough common ground to forge alliances, the group set about developing strategies for advancing the free expression rights of youth.
Later that year, the newly formed Youth Free Expression Network (YFEN) co-sponsored "Back to School Censorship" press events in New York City, Boston, and San Francisco protesting Internet filters in public schools. These events highlighted the ineffectiveness of widely used Internet filtering systems, stressed filtering's infringement upon students' ability to use the Internet for research, journalism, and intellectual inquiry, and pointed out the "digital divide" that such systems create between students of different socio-economic classes. YFEN also launched a nationwide student letter-writing campaign against filtering software.
Over the next few years, YFEN’s Young Activist Speaker's Bureau presented panels on a variety of youth censorship issues at conferences and conventions throughout theUnited States. Events include the National Media Reform Conference in Madison, Wisconsin; the National PTA Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina; the National Media Education Conference in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Grassroots Media Conference in New York.
Perhaps the most well know of YFEN’s programs is theAnnual Film Contest. Since 2004, the film contest has been engaging young filmmakers from around the country in issues relating to youth expression, posing such questions as "Does Free Speech Matter?", “How does Censorship Effect You?”, and “War and Free Speech: Can They Co-Exist?” Participants respond to these questions with 4 minute films done in a variety of styles from animations to silent film to music video. The films are then shared with other youth and educators as a means of further discussion around these issues.
YFEN also provides in-class workshops that address student rights, while fostering creative ways to combat censorship in schools and on college campuses.
With 39.7 million citizens of this nation between the ages of 10 - 19, YFEN aims to fill an enormous void as the first coalition of youth and adults committed to shifting debate beyond overly reductive sound-bites and toward policies that enhance young people's access to information, and ability to express their views, as well as increased participation in the political process.
