Estonia is preparing an unprecedented public service to proactively reach out to young people distant from studies and employment directly on the platforms they use daily: TikTok, Instagram, Discord, Twitch, Reddit, Steam, Minecraft, or Roblox.
The Education and Youth Board, the Estonian public agency known as Harno, plans to devote nearly one million euros to this national online socio-educational work program. The aim is not to monitor the youths, but to enable identifiable professionals to contact them, listen to them and direct them toward training, employment or a support service.
The project targets people aged 15 to 26 who are not in education or employment, or who risk finding themselves in that situation. A particular priority will be given to adolescents aged 15 to 17.
A public procurement contract worth nearly 957,000 euros
Harno is currently seeking a provider capable of designing and deploying this service at the national scale.
The estimated value of the contract reaches 956 700 euros, i.e., nearly one million euros.
The selected partner will have to assemble a team of educators and youth workers specialized in digital environments. These professionals will need to be regularly present on social networks, forums and gaming platforms frequented by young people.
The service must be delivered exclusively online. It may take the form of private conversations, public discussions, live broadcasts, community activities or referrals to local structures.
Estonia has not yet deployed a digital youth-work program at such a national scale. The contractor will thus have some leeway to define the most effective intervention methods.
TikTok, Roblox, Minecraft and Discord as new contact points
The list under consideration goes far beyond TikTok and Roblox.
Educators will be able to intervene notably on :
- TikTok ;
- Instagram ;
- Discord ;
- Twitch ;
- Reddit ;
- Steam ;
- Minecraft ;
- Roblox ;
- as well as on other forums, communities and digital spaces frequented by young people.
The idea rests on a simple observation: a portion of youths in difficulty do not spontaneously go to a support centre, an administration, or an association. Instead, they spend several hours a day on social networks, streaming platforms or online games.
Rather than waiting for them to come to a physical service, Harno therefore aims to move part of the support to the spaces where they are already present.
Nearly 20 000 young people could need help
According to estimates cited by Harno, nearly 20 000 Estonian youths aged 15 to 26 would currently have, or could soon have, a need for support to continue their studies or enter the job market.
The program aims to contact about 2 500 young people over the coming years.
The ambition is not only to multiply conversations. Harno also sets a performance target: 65 % of participants should be in an improved situation six months after the end of their support.
This improvement could take the form of returning to training, resuming studies, entering employment or being referred to a service capable of addressing more specific difficulties.
A priority for 15–17-year-olds
The scheme targets all 15–26-year-olds, but adolescents aged 15 to 17 are a priority group.
At this age, dropping out or accumulating absences can quickly lead to lasting disengagement. Early intervention can therefore prevent a temporary difficulty from turning into prolonged exclusion from the education system and the job market.
Educators must be able to spot signals expressed directly by young people: repeated school absences, dropping out, lack of a plan, undeclared small jobs or difficulties envisaging a return to training.
Harno stresses that this is not about using complex surveillance or tracking tools to secretly identify young people.
Contact must originate from information that individuals themselves choose to share during exchanges.
No mandatory identity verification
The agency states that no systematic consultation of the population registry nor any mandatory identity verification are planned.
Young people may remain anonymous if they wish.
However, professionals will collect certain pseudonymized information to document exchanges, track participants’ progress and measure the program’s effectiveness.
Collection must remain limited to data that each young person agrees to provide.
This approach seeks to solve a key challenge: offering sufficiently personalized support without turning gaming platforms and social networks into spaces of administrative surveillance.
Visible educators, not infiltrating agents
The educators must be clearly identifiable as youth-work professionals.
They should not be expected to pose as mere players or fake users to win the trust of adolescents.
The envisaged model more closely resembles that of Estonian police officers online, who over the years have become recognizable and accessible interlocutors on digital platforms.
Educators will be able to answer questions, open a conversation with a young person who expresses a difficulty and offer appropriate support.
They will also be able to organize live broadcasts or online activities dedicated to studies, work, skills, mental health, or administrative procedures.
A service still in the tender phase
The program is not yet fully operational.
Harno is at the stage of selecting a contractor responsible for designing the system, recruiting professionals and implementing intervention methods.
Local initiatives already exist in Estonia. The city of Tartu, for example, employs a digital educator, but the new contract aims to create a coherent and accessible service across the country.
Harno is a public agency under the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. Created in 2020, it is responsible for implementing several national policies in the areas of education, youth, training and mobility.
Why Estonia is betting on digital youth work
The choice of TikTok, Discord or Roblox is not about a PR move to appear modern.
It reflects a transformation in the relationship between young people and public services.
Traditional youth centers remain important, but they do not necessarily reach the most isolated individuals, those most distrustful of institutions, or those living far from support structures.
Digital youth work allows for a first contact that is less formal. A young person can ask a question without moving, without immediately revealing their identity, and without having to present an administrative file.
This approach can be particularly useful for people who hesitate to ask for help or who do not know which service to turn to.
It also allows professionals to observe concerns expressed in online communities and adapt their responses to daily realities.
Platforms that also carry risks
The Estonian project nevertheless operates in a context of growing concerns about online safety for minors.
TikTok has faced criticism for the addictive design of its content feed and for exposing adolescents to certain harmful videos.
Roblox, which brings together a large population of young users, has also strengthened its safety measures, controls and resources dedicated to digital wellbeing.
The presence of educators in these spaces can thus create a new form of support. But it requires strict rules regarding privacy, protection of minors, retention of conversations and how to intervene when a young person mentions a serious situation.
The program will need to specify how professionals should act in cases of violence, exploitation, psychological distress or imminent danger.
A policy embedded in a long-term strategy
Estonia has a national youth plan covering the period 2021–2035.
This document regards youth work as a means to develop skills, autonomy, social ties and young people’s ability to enter working life.
The country legally defines as “youth” people aged 7 to 26 years.
Before this new project, the Estonian system already included 281 open youth centers, attended by more than 80 000 people, as well as programs dedicated to youths who follow neither studies nor training and are not employed.
The use of digital platforms thus fits into a broader policy aiming to diversify forms of support and reach audiences who do not frequent traditional structures.
An idea Tunisia could draw inspiration from
The Estonian approach deserves to be observed in Tunisia, where school dropout, youth unemployment and difficulty accessing guidance services remain major challenges.
A large portion of Tunisian youths uses daily Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, messaging services and gaming platforms. Yet public support mechanisms remain often concentrated in offices, institutions or programs with little online visibility.
A professional digital presence could help inform about training, competitions, employment schemes, entrepreneurship or psychological support services.
However, it should not be limited to opening an institutional page and publishing press releases.
The Estonian experience rests on a different idea: train professionals capable of listening, exchanging and directly supporting young people in digital spaces, while respecting their anonymity and personal data.
In a country like Tunisia, such a system would need to be adapted to the languages used by young people, regional differences and the limits of local structures responsible for taking over.
Going to reach young people where they are
The Estonian project ultimately reverses the traditional logic of public aid.
It is no longer up to the young person in difficulty to find the right administration on their own, understand procedures and cross the door of a service.
It is the professionals who go to meet them in the spaces where they chat, play, watch videos and build part of their social life.
TikTok, Roblox or Minecraft will not replace school, nor youth centers, nor human support.
But they can become a first entry point.
By dedicating nearly one million euros to this experiment, Estonia bets that social networks and online games are not only problems to regulate. They can also become places where an isolated young person meets, for the first time, someone capable of helping them.
