This article presents the online participation experiences of French-language secondary school students with the objective of redefining Francophonie for students. Using data collected through questionnaires (n=215) and focus groups (n=71), we find that young people develop and use a variety of digital literacy skills when they participate online. Moreover, we highlight the many factors that students weigh up before publishing online, including content, approval, audience and possible consequences. One notices the absence of language among these considerations. In fact, young people say they participate in French during private communications or school-related tasks, but much prefer English for online participation. Students note the lack of opportunities to develop their online participation skills in school, while we highlight the potential of this participation to help students 1) find opportunities to express themselves and create in French, as well as to find Francophone communities, and 2) engage in a Francophonie that they are redefining. We also emphasize the urgency of developing policies and curricula that include digital literacy for French-language schools, and online participation in particular.