Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation

Finland is consistently ranked as Europe's most media literate country and the skills needed to spot online hoaxes are on the school curriculum, amidst a boom of mis- and disinformation campaigns.

"Who knew what a troll was before?" literature and Finnish language teacher Saara Varmola asked her 14 to 15 year-old students who all promptly raised their hands during a class at a Helsinki school in November.

"Who produced the material that you watch, what do you produce yourself and whether you have an ethical responsibility," Varmola tells AFP, as she lists the critical questions to ask when living in a global information environment increasingly characterised by misleading information.

By teaching its citizens how to critically engage with media content to debunk hoaxes, mis- and disinformation, as well as to produce content of their own, Finland wants to promote media literacy as a civic skill.

The Nordic country was among the first in Europe to outline a national policy for media literacy in 2013.

Updated in 2019, the national policy ensures media literacy is integrated in subjects throughout education from early childhood to upper secondary classes.

To enhance skills among adults and the elderly, libraries and NGO's are offering courses.

"Media literacy is essential to building societal resilience, and Finland realised this quite early on," Anders Adlercreutz, Minister of Education, told AFP.

"As traditional media is responsible for less and less of the information we receive, it's especially important to be able to critically evaluate what you read," he added.

Considered a forerunner, Finland has been ranked first on the European Media Literacy Index every year since it was first published in 2017...