Friday 26 May 2023

Finland shows the way on "fake news"

Yesterday's i newspaper told how primary school children in Finland  are taught "how to traverse the turbulent and often toxic digital landscape so that they can assess news stories, challenge conspiracy theories, handle data and spot hate speech".

The article goes on:

These are the children of Generation Z - digital natives of the post-truth age, brought up from infancy using the internet, social media, tablets and mobile phones. Yet in Finland, a country famous for one of the world's finest and most equitable education systems, they are also taught critical thinking, from an early age  to help them resist the flood of fake news and conspiracy theories.

The UK would do well to learn from these lessons, too, Democracies face increasingly fraught online struggles against dictatorships, fanatics and fraudsters, with artificial intelligence looming to make the fight even harder - so we need to do everything possible to equip our own children for the realities of the world in which they live.

When early years education in Wales was overhauled by Kirsty Williams and her team, the Finnish system was borne in mind. I would like to think that Jeremy Miles, MS for Neath and the current education minister, is looking to Finland again.


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