76 \ Global Youth Development Index and Report 2016 outcome. Following the kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls by the so-called Boko Haram group in Nigeria in 2014, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign ‘went viral’ – creating worldwide awareness and increasing pressure for action to rescue the kidnapped girls. Yet despite the outpouring of grief and anger generated by the social media campaign, it has thus far failed to secure the release of the schoolgirls. Described by some as ‘clicktivism’, low-level, online engagement such as signing e-petitions, sharing posts or using hashtags may in fact stand in the way of committed participation.60 Proponents suggest that while the digital world has made it fairly easy to support a cause, the engagement is often superficial and short-lived, hardly helping the effort required to bring about tangible change.61 Another critical aspect of the digital age is that while ICTs and social media can help spread empowerment and information, they can just as easily be manipulated by governments, corporations and others to serve as a tool to exercise greater control through surveillance of citizens or the curtailment of free speech and choice.62 Across the world, governments are trying to police social media on the pretext of upholding national security, preventing terrorism or safeguarding the public interest.63 Certain avenues of political dissent in the digital realm are now heavily regulated and in some cases have even been deemed illegal or criminal.64 Technology firms across the world are under pressure to facilitate such censorship.65 And censorship has surfaced in many forms, from websites and social media platforms getting blocked in some countries to political activists being detained and journalists disappearing in others. In many cases, the persecuted happen to be young. In many fragile and conflict-affected states, such as Mexico, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq and Syria, non-state actors have also increasingly targeted and punished activists, public intellectuals and journalists. 3.6 Partners in development: youth-led environmental activism In recent years, young people have taken a leading role through formal structures and within informal movements to press for action on climate change and clean energy. At the international level, young people have been active in environmental negotiations through formal structures, such as the Major Group for Children and Youth.66 The Major Group system, adopted at The Earth Summit in 1992, formalised the way individuals and organisations participate at the UN according to nine interest areas, including women, local government, business and industry, indigenous people, and children and youth. In the negotiations at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), young people have been participating in the intergovernmental process since the fifth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 5) in 1999. But the establishment of youth non-governmental organisations (YOUNGOs) – the UNFCCC observer constituency or network of youth-led organisations – has provided a conduit for the exchange of official information between young people and the UNFCCC secretariat since COP 15, which was held in Copenhagen in 2009. In practical terms, members of YOUNGOs now have the opportunity to address the plenary at the convention, make official submissions, and meet senior COP officials to convey their views and demands. One of the most effective youth-led environmental campaigns is the ‘divestment movement’. The cross-border network that makes up this movement mostly comprises students and young environmental activists. It seeks to put pressure on banks, universities, faith groups, pension funds and individuals to stop investing in the fossil fuel industry and instead put their money into renewable energy. The logic of the campaign is simple: do not invest money in companies or projects that in some shape or form are contributing to environmental degradation and climate change. In 2015, investments worth US$3.4 trillion were divested away from the fossil fuel industry.67 Campaigning by students and activists has forced many universities and colleges, mostly in the USA and Europe, to switch endowments and investments away from fossil fuels.68 In May 2016, the ‘largest global civil disobedience in the history of the climate movement’ took place across 13 countries and, among other things, led to the shutting down of UK’s largest opencast coal mine and the halting of $20 million worth of coal shipments in Australia.69 Young activists were at the forefront of this campaign: planning, leading and directing the actions – giving their time, risking arrest and placing themselves in danger for a cause they really care about and relate to.