Students learn to spot misinformation

“Who produced the content you are watching?”: In Finland, the skills to spot misinformation online are taught in schools, crucial knowledge to counter a growing evil. “Who knows what a troll is?” asks Finnish literature and language teacher Saara Varmola to her 14- and 15-year-old students at a school in the capital, Helsinki. Everyone raises their hands.

The essential questions to ask yourself in an information-saturated world are: “Who is behind the content you are watching? What do you produce yourselves and what is your responsibility?”, lists Saara Varmola.

By teaching its citizens how to critically analyze media content, thwart hoaxes and identify fake news, Finland aims to promote media education as a civic skill.

This Nordic country was one of the first in Europe to define a national policy in this area in 2013. In 2019, this was integrated into all subjects of the school curriculum, taught from primary to secondary.

“Information education is essential to strengthen the resilience of society, and Finland understood this very early,” Anders Adlercreutz, the Minister of Education, told AFP. The share of information coming from traditional media is decreasing and it is therefore “particularly important to be able to critically evaluate what we read,” he emphasizes.

Finland ranks first in the European Media Literacy Index, which annually compares 41 countries’ ability to deal with disinformation since its creation in 2017 by Bulgaria’s Open Society Institute. The index is based on criteria such as the quality of education, media freedom and the level of trust within society. Last year, Finland was closely followed by its northern neighbors: Denmark, Norway, Estonia and Sweden.

According to the Minister of Education, the key to Finland’s success lies in the collaborative approach between several sectors of society. “Schools, the media, newspapers, businesses, libraries, museums… Everyone participates in this work” for the country’s 5.5 million inhabitants, specifies Anders Adlercreutz.

Finns also trust their institutions, notes Leo Pekkala, deputy director of the National Audiovisual Institute of Finland (KAVI) – an institution responsible for implementing media education policy and the information. “We have very great confidence in the defense forces, the army, the police and the government. We also trust our politicians and the media,” he says.

Finland, which has a 1,340 kilometer-long border with Russia, is however not immune to the influence of disinformation campaigns, warns Anders Adlercreutz. “I’m not sure we’ve been fully tested,” he notes, while the rise of AI worries as much as it excites.

In the snow-covered Helsinki school, Saara Varmola distributes homework to her students. Can YouTubers and Streamers Mislead? Is sponsored content a way to use information to influence? “Yes, it happens that YouTubers, streamers and people on social networks do it,” notes Bruno Kerman, a 4th grade student.^e. “Yes, and who is stopping them?” asks Niilo Korkeaoja, his classmate.

Check the source of information disseminated on TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram, think critically… The students met by AFP say that the Finnish education system provides them with the tools necessary to thwart disinformation, especially online. “The school taught me to interpret the messages conveyed by the media, but also to read between the lines,” explains Ronja Turunen, another student.

Finland still faces the big challenge of the times: ensuring that all its citizens are aware of the rapid developments in the digital world, including the growing number of elderly people, who may never have learned to detect false information on the internet.