The 2024 edition of the Youth Hacking 4 Freedom competition is about to start! Registration is now open and the contest kicks off on 7 December! Since the start of the competition in 2021 more than 150 teenagers have already taken part in it. Youth Hacking 4 Freedom offers young Europeans, between 14 and 18 years, the opportunity to design and develop their own project using Free Software, and to win more than €4000 and a weekend in Brussels.

Run by the Free Software Foundation Europe, Youth Hacking 4 Freedom [yh4f.org] is a free competition for young Europeans that offers the chance to work on their own projects, alone or in teams. The 6 winners will receive a cash prize ranging from 1024 € to 4096 €. But at Youth Hacking 4 Freedom everybody is getting something out of the competition. Participants have the chance to meet our Free Software experts from the jury as well as other teenagers from all over Europe and build friendships that can last a lifetime.

“I wanted to create a privacy friendly version of ‘Kahoot!’ so students do not get tracked while using it, which I think it is really important!" -Marlon, YH4F2023 winner -

“Since I had some experience in developing software and using versioning tools like Git, I took the opportunity to practice and improve my skills even further.(...) I also learned a lot about decentralization and how to write good documentation. Lastly, I was interested in meeting other like-minded people, so I joined the Matrix channel and had a lot of fun discussing topics related to Free Software” -Konrad 2022 participant-

At Youth Hacking 4 Freedom, participants not only improve their programming skills from beginner to advanced, but also learn how to work on a 6-month project, developing organisation, time management and project planning skills. It also gives them a chance to be creative and develop something they really like, as well as the pride of developing their own project.

You can find all the information in the YH4F media kit on our download server: https://download.fsfe.org/YH4F/Youth%20Hacking%204%20Freedom%20-%202024.pdf

Youth Hacking 4 Freedom in a nutshell.     • Participants must be born between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2008.     • Participation is free, but registration is mandatory.     • Registration is open throughout the coding period: https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/658534     • The opening takes place on 7 December 2023.     • The coding period runs from 1 January to 30 June 2024.     • During the programming period, participants are free to attend the monthly online meetings.     • The first, second and third place winners will receive €4,096, €2,048 and €1,024 respectively. There will also be three special prizes of €1,024. In total, around €10,000 will be awarded.     • Each participant who submits a project will also receive a certificate of participation and a special prize.     • The competition will be conducted remotely, except for the award ceremony, which will take place in Brussels during a weekend in October 2024 (to which the winners and a family member will be invited on an all-expenses-paid basis).

For more information, please visit:https://yh4f.org or send an email to contact at fsfe.org https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release with YH4F in the subject line. You can also find more information about the successful previous editions here: https://fsfe.org/tags/tagged-yh4f.html and the media kit: https://download.fsfe.org/YH4F/Youth%20Hacking%204%20Freedom%20-%202024.pdf