The evolving digital challenge

For over thirty years, IREX has worked to ensure citizens can access and critically engage with quality information, empowering informed decision-making and community engagement. As digital spaces evolve and the boundaries between content creators and consumers blur, the online space provides both challenges and opportunities for people to exercise their agency responsibly, safely, and effectively. This demands new approaches to support communities in navigating complex information ecosystems.

Rethinking youth engagement

Our experience has revealed that effective programming must continually adapt to rapid technological change and shifting social norms. Over the past decade, IREX has refined its digital citizenship methodologies, integrating emotional regulation and critical thinking into a diverse portfolio of tools. This approach is grounded in leveraging in-person social networks, where trust is built on relationships and emphasizes thoughtful reflection and behavioral aspects of individuals’ engagement with information, each other, and increasingly, AI. 

By fostering these trust-based connections and encouraging individuals to critically assess their own information habits, we create space for meaningful shifts in digital engagement and agency. This is how IREX prepares educators, caregivers, and youth to respond to the multifaceted challenges people face online, fostering resilience and informed participation in today’s information ecosystems.

Introducing the Youth Digital Experiences (DEX) Meter

One of our latest innovations is the Youth Digital Experiences (DEX) Meter—a user-friendly tool developed by an interdisciplinary IREX team, grounded in research and best practices, and tested with diverse youth groups over two years. The DEX Meter generates digital engagement profiles based on 34 indicators across seven domains:

• Safety & Wellbeing
• Creativity
• Leadership
• Personal Experiences
• Interactions
• Critical Thinking
• Confidence

Information is collected in a rapid, intuitive, youth-validated survey format. Drawing from digital citizenship literature and IREX’s tested evaluation tools, the DEX Meter then maps and scores responses to reveal each user’s primary and secondary digital engagement “profiles”. For example, a participant might be identified as an “Influencer”—someone who confidently creates and shares original content and values active participation in online communities—or as a “Guardian,” who prioritizes the safety and wellbeing of others and encourages responsible digital behavior. 

These profiles help users better understand their own patterns of interaction and engagement within digital spaces. The positive focus of the diagnostic, which highlights the strengths and makes recommendations for balancing the profiles ensures that users accept the recommendations and do not perceive this assessment as critical or evaluative. 

What we learned in Cartagena

In October, Laura Agosta, Senior Deputy Director at IREX presented and rolled out the DEX Meter at UNESCO’s Minds Over AI event in Cartagena, Colombia. Thirty-eight of the 70 attendees, primarily youth ages 18–25, completed the questionnaire and shared their thoughts. 

Key findings:

• High digital access: 63% use social media as their main information source; all have used AI before, primarily for answering questions and creating content.
• Strengths: Encouragingly, but also not surprising given the conference setting, most participants scored highest in “Interactions”, demonstrating confidence in respectful, responsible online communication, empathy, and upholding human rights and cultural richness. “Critical Thinking” was the next strongest domain, reflecting high confidence in skills needed for verifying information, understanding algorithmic influence, and avoiding manipulation.
• Areas for growth: Respondents scored lower in the domains related to “Leadership,” “Confidence,” and “Safety & Wellbeing”— highlighting gaps in skills needed to navigate online spaces safely, security, and challenges understanding data privacy, mental health awareness, and community engagement online.
• Most common profile: “Connector” was the most common profile in the group taking the assessment. This profile thrives on exchanging ideas and facilitating positive online interactions.

Participants reported the findings to be revelatory, useful, and compelled them to consider ways to strengthen their digital practices. The results present an actionable picture of needs and gaps that can inform skill-building, campaigns, and policies focused on digital development and human empowerment. 

Practical implications for program development

The DEX Meter is more than a diagnostic tool: it’s a practical resource for program design and evaluation. By using it as a pre- and post-test to complement other tools to test knowledge and skills, we can generate actionable data on youth digital engagement, informing targeted interventions. Using the tool may also help develop programs with resources and mentoring to increase youth confidence, while the tech sector can implement strategies for safer, more creative digital participation.

This aligns with IREX’s broader experience: youth need to understand and exercise agency, not just participate in their information ecosystems. They need to shape it, becoming creators and thought leaders who in turn will be able to demand and shape safer and more relevant digital spaces. As one participant shared, “I didn’t expect the test to show I could be a digital change agent.”

Moving forward: Collaboration and opportunity

IREX’s collaborative approach, grounded in evidence and safety approaches to online developments, and responsive to youth voices, positions us to advance healthier information ecosystems. We invite donors and partners to join us in scaling tools like the DEX Meter, ensuring youth everywhere have the agency and skills to thrive online.