40 years ago Youthline started. It seeked to engage, involve and evolve young people leadership abilities and then support them to provide a service back to the community.
Technology has always been an essential part of young people's life. The technogy that Youthline and young people utlised in 1970 is very differnt to 2010. Parents in both eras know the challenge of getting young people off the phone however parents now have the added advantage of being able to connect with the kids regardless wherever they are.
We are not experts in the telco arena but we have seen enough changes out there to get very nervous about signficant changes in the operating environment. We have seen enough information for us to wonder if decisions are made with a full understanding of the impact not only to organisations like our but to the wider community and particularily margalised people.
I am the Youthline CEO; I have started this discussion because we want to be informed with what is happening so we can be preapred for what might be around the corner. In the last year our help line has seen an increase in text from 5000 per year to over 200,000. Trying to predict the impact of regulatory decisions is a challenge and important if we are to be prepared.