We’re incredibly proud of our alumni continuing to reach for the sun and who, in doing so, have become hugely successful in a wide range of fields. From Old Dragons capturing snow leopards on camera like Dan O’Neill (OD 2005), playing for England like Maia Bouchier (OD 2012), and making life-saving apps like Michael Dent (OD 2002), to our Junior Old Dragons making a difference, such as Anya Katanyutanon (OD 2021) who presented her research findings at the World Conference on Public Health (WCPH) and Leo Wilkin (OD 2022) who represented the NSPCC at a roundtable in 10 Downing Street.
Today, we hear from Leo, whose voice joined creators and representatives from the Netflix series Adolescence to champion the importance of online safety and shape vital conversations for young people.
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My journey in online safety and youth advocacy began at Dragon, where I was a pupil from 2018 to 2022. I was invited to apply to become one of the school’s first Anti-Bullying Ambassadors with the Diana Award. At Dragon, my team worked on increasing publicity for support and the idea of ‘being an upstander’, topics that I still find very relevant, to this day, in my current work.
Since then, I’ve taken the skills I learnt from that initial training session to my current school, Wellington College in Berkshire. Through Wellington, I was encouraged to apply for a place on the NSPCC – the UK’s leading children’s charity – Online Safety Advisory Board (more affectionately known as The Voice of Online Youth).
If you’re ever offered a chance to make a difference, go for it. You never know where it might take you.
My role within the Online Safety Advisory Board is multifaceted, looking across government, industry, and regulators; and I’m always thrilled when we tackle AI – even with its scary uses or the negative consequences of its mass adoption. We recently partnered with Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, to look at the mass use of AI-generated deepfakes and chatbots, and their impact on young people. I’ve been in talks with the Secretary of State for Science, Technology, and Innovation, Peter Kyle, at the NSPCC Headquarters in London, discussing age verification online, and our thoughts on the smartphone ban for children under 18 in the UK (we were opposed).
Most excitingly, I recently represented the NSPCC at a roundtable in 10 Downing Street with the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, along with the creators and Netflix representatives from the hit TV series ‘Adolescence’ on whether we should show it in secondary schools, and the impact of the online world on toxic masculinity, especially in younger children. I was also interviewed by the progressive news channel LADbible to give my thoughts on the session. The pictures of the roundtable made national headlines — It was surreal to see myself featured on BBC News bulletins throughout the day. Finally, outside of my work with the NSPCC, I’ve also delivered anti-bullying workshops to primary schools in London, most recently to 80 Year 5 children on cyberbullying.
Looking back, I could never have imagined that becoming an Anti-Bullying Ambassador at Dragon would be the start of such an incredible journey.
This summer, I’m jetting off to Vermont in the US for six weeks to volunteer for The Hack Foundation, a US international nonprofit that brings STEM and coding to schools and children worldwide. However, I’ll still be back in time for the NSPCC’s three-day summit on online safety in Bristol!
Looking back, I could never have imagined that becoming an Anti-Bullying Ambassador at Dragon would be the start of such an incredible journey. If you’re ever offered a chance to make a difference, go for it. You never know where it might take you.
Leo Wilkin (OD 2022)
We look forward to hearing more from Leo in the next issue of The OD, where he’ll share his experience volunteering for The Hack Foundation this summer, and attending the NSPCC’s online safety summit this summer.
