Iman Gad of Girls for Gender Equity on youth tech literacy funding

Thank you, Andrea.

Good afternoon, Chair Dinowitz, Chair De La Rosa, and members of the committees.

My name is Iman Gad, and I am the Policy and Advocacy Manager at Girls for Gender Equity, a black feminist organization that works to reshape culture and policy through advocacy, youth-centered programming, and narrative shift.

So at a time when technology and AI are moving at an unprecedented pace, we are here today to urge the cities to prioritize the education, privacy, and safety of our students by redirecting all

funds currently going to tech companies and surveillance tools towards organizations that are doing the work to support young people's tech literacy and towards proven safety infrastructure such as restorative justice, mental health access, and immigrant protections.

Last November, the Alliance on Gender Equity, our youth-led organizing base, held a town hall to inform the School Girls Demand campaign, a campaign with the purpose of uplifting the voices of young people and giving them the opportunity to ask their city for what they need.

AI and tech were hot topics in that room of 70 students from schools across the five boroughs.

Students expressed grievances that included the need for best practices for utilizing AI in learning environments, the racial disparities in AI access,

This is an education

climate-conscious ways to use AI, and the desire to learn about data privacy, along with their digital footprint and methods to protect themselves.

As young people from our youth programs reflected on their time in programs and the lessons they walked away with, one student said, I feel like one way that I can achieve social justice is by telling my friends and family about consentful tech.

I feel like that's very important to me now that AI is taking over.

Making sure that you're using apps and devices that ask for consent before they just take the information that you're giving them.

Keeping our youth tech literate and informed about the importance of data privacy was a high priority for this year's program curriculum to meet the moment and heed the call of our youth.

While small organizations are doing the work to keep young people protected, the city needs to support these efforts by funding programming and safety infrastructures in schools.

This is why we call on the city to fund our alliance on gender equity in the amount of $300,000, to continue equipping young black girls, queer and gender-expensive youth to fight for a New York City that is resilient, and I'll put the rest of my written testimony.