Young people value free speech, but they don’t always feel free to practice it.

New Knight Foundation-Ipsos research among young adults and high school students points to a generation that strongly values free speech as a democratic principle, but is less confident about exercising it without consequences.

Across all groups, spaces designed for open exchange, such as classrooms and workplaces, are where they feel least free, while the spaces that are personal and private, like home and increasingly AI chatbots, are where they feel the most free. Fewer than four in 10 college students say freedom of speech is secure — the lowest level measured in a decade of Knight Foundation-Ipsos surveys.

The two reports examine attitudes among young adults, including college students, and high school students. Together, they extend Knight’s Free Expression Research Series, which has examined attitudes toward free speech among high school students, college students, young adults and the broader public over time.

Taken together, the two studies offer insight into the attitudes of young people and what those attitudes may mean for civic life. They also give us a view into how attitudes toward free expression develop from high school into early adulthood.

Learn more about both reports at the links below:

The Future of the First Amendment: Young Adults

The Future of the First Amendment: High School Students