Elie Mondah, a 17-year-old Explorer Scout from Romford, puts it plainly: the new digital badges her group is rolling out feel more useful than learning to build a campfire.
"These new badges are more relevant than the traditional ones for camping and making fires, because it's key to modern life," she says.
The Scout movement — which turns 120 years old next year — is giving its Explorer Scout programme its biggest overhaul in almost a quarter of a century. And this time around, teenagers won't just be learning to tie knots or read a compass. They'll be learning to navigate the internet, create content responsibly, and understand how artificial intelligence is reshaping the world they'll live and work in.
The change comes after the Scouts asked nearly 3,000 teenagers what skills they actually needed. The answer was clear: digital know-how.
The new badges cover three main areas. A content creation award asks young people to explore how online communities can drive real change and to build their own digital storytelling projects. A communication badge teaches teens about their "digital footprint" — the trail of information they leave behind every time they post, search, or scroll — and how social media shapes what people think and feel. A personal safety badge requires participants to create resources that help others stay safe online.
Andrew Thorp, a Scout leader who helped design the new programme, says the overhaul reflects what young people themselves were asking for. "What was really clear is that young people want to be able to get skills that will help them in their lives going forward, and they want to find a place to belong," he says.
Thorp draws a parallel to the basics Scouts have always taught. "In the same way that Scouts teach young people how to light a fire safely, it's important that you take that same approach to things like content creation," he explains. "It's not just about learning how to do something, it's about how to do things safely, how to keep them safe in those environments."
Ethan Watkins, 14, from Staffordshire, says school isn't keeping up with how fast technology is changing. "AI is going to be a massive part of my work and education, and so it's really important for me to learn to use it effectively and safely," he says.
The timing matters. Politicians, schools, and parents are currently debating whether to ban social media for anyone under 16. The Scouts say they'll update their guidance if such a ban becomes law, reminding teenagers not to share their badge projects on social media if the rules change. But Thorp suggests that debate might be missing the bigger picture. "This is about giving people skills for the future," he says. "We focus on creating and understanding content rather than simply publishing it online."
Mondah agrees. At her school, she says, AI is only ever discussed in terms of dangers. The new badges, by contrast, let teenagers explore both the opportunities and the responsibilities that come with living online. For the Scouts, that balance is the whole point.