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YouTube and texts to rock the vote?
Using tech to get down with the kids...

By Steve Ranger

Published: Thursday 31 August 2006

MPs are trying to get young people interested in politics by using photo, text and video messages and posting on YouTube.

The Citizen Calling project has been developed by the Hansard Society to help parliament explore ways in which mobile phones might support consultations.

Messages can be sent to the project's phone number - 07786 201247 - and are hosted on the project's website.

MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee are using the trial to get views from young people about the criminal justice system. Its chairman John Denham MP has recorded a message - on a mobile phone - and posted it on YouTube and the Citizen Calling site.

The committee wants young people to comment on their experiences of crime, and the factors that lead young people to break the law.

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The Hansard Society's director of e-democracy Ross Ferguson said many projects are created from the top down, whereas this one will allow young people to choose the best way to communicate.

The "evidence-giving" session will start next week and run for four weeks. The society, which aims to promote effective parliamentary democracy, will then compare the usefulness of mobile routes to other web-based platforms and conventional, offline methods.

Governments are increasingly looking at using new channels such as YouTube to get their message out - but not always with the best results. Earlier this week the Cabinet Office was forced to pull one of the public service videos it published on YouTube due to copyright violation.