Meet Joon Baek, #Leader4Tomorrow

Joon Baek's ProfileJoon Baek

Born in South Korea, Joon Baek served 21 months in the Republic of Korea Army at the Demilitarized Zone, where he witnessed firsthand the need for nuclear disarmament.

He graduated from Columbia University studying computer science and physics. While in school, he was the student body president of the Columbia College Student Council, advocating for international student rights, student privacy, and the university's response to COVID-19.

Joon hopes to bring his expertise in artificial intelligence, passion for privacy, and experience in the military to the #Leaders4Tomorrow Workshop Series. 

Joon's Project to Empower: Workshop on Privacy, AI & Disarmament 

According to Statista, a quarter of internet users in the world are under twenty-five. Children and teenagers are targets of tools of data collection, driven by social media platforms like Tik Tok. Young people have their entire social lives on their phone and on the internet, thereby being vulnerable to cybersecurity threats and weaponization of ICTs. 

When Youth for Privacy, a privacy educational group I am part of, participated in the United Nations Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies (OEWG), our members were shocked at how youth voices were not systematically represented. It is jarring as youth makes up a big chunk of internet users worldwide.

This project hopes to bridge the gap between the youth’s interest in ICTs and to cyber-diplomacy, emerging technological threats, and privacy.

We created an educational curriculum focusing on ICTs, privacy, disarmament, SDGs, and youth advocacy. So far, we have delivered this workshop on privacy, AI, and disarmament three times, one virtual and two in-person. The interactive workshop helps youths to think about privacy, take practical measures to protect their personal data, and asks them to take action on digital disarmament initiatives of UNODA.

We expect to continue hosting this educational workshop, both in-person and virtually. According to our post-workshop survey, 78% of participants showed that they learned a lot of the dangers of cyberweapons and half expressed interest in taking part in youth initiatives of UNODA.

If anybody is interested in hosting an educational workshop with us, please fill out the interest form below!

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