A survey, or questionnaire is when you are asked to give your views on one or more subjects. Petitions are when you are asked to support a point of view, like a specific change to a law.
Depending on your age and who is organising the petition or survey, you can participate in different ways. You can even organise a survey or petition yourself. Digital surveys and petitions are often used to reach more people.
What is it?
Surveys
Surveys are often taken to get views from lots of people that will be used to help make decisions, or find out what people think about a subject.
- Fill in an online survey or questionnaire - maybe shared by an organisation working with children.
- Fill in a written questionnaire - maybe in a classroom at school.
- Somebody could ask you questions - like in a face-to-face interview.
Petitions
Petitions are usually quite formal, and involve signing something to show that you approve or agree with the proposal given in the petition.
The results are used to influence important decisions, so they try to get a big number of signatures. This could be at a school level through to national and global levels.
- Parents might help children organise a petition to get a change in what's provided in the school canteen, and all the kid's signatures would be presented to the principal.
- Citizens could join together in a group to collect signatures for a change to a law, which is then presented to a government.
Here's some examples
Co-creating surveys for children
Here on our Platform, we run online surveys on subjects that have been decided by children. Like what children need to feel safe, cyberbullying or social inclusion.
Our child members help us create the surveys, and thousands children from across the EU give their views. We then share everything that was said with the adults who are making EU laws.
EU petitions
In the European Union, there's a special way that citizens can raise a petition on subjects that are important for them - to ask for changes. To start an EU petition, you need to be 18, and they can be on many different subjects, like the environment, citizen's rights or consumer protection.
So if you had something really important you wanted to see done, you could get support from school or your parents to start a petition in the EU, or within your own country or community.
Run your own survey
Like our young Spanish Advisory Board member Eva, you could also organise your own survey to get feedback on something that matters to you and help bring about change. Like in your school or local community.
Eva ran a survey to find out what people around her thought about voting for 16-year-olds. She presented the results at the Platform's Advisory Board meeting and within her community.
