Young people are increasingly spending their lives online. The proliferation of digital misinformation, particularly in social media, poses a significant threat to informed democratic participation. How many people who believe everything they see on TikTok can democracy withstand?
Every day, children and young people consume hundreds—sometimes thousands—of messages from videos and media platforms that are not subject to editorial oversight. TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram. The democratic challenge is that most of us rarely stop to ask who created these messages, why they were created, or what may have been left out. The gap between consuming media and understanding it is where critical media literacy becomes essential.
A functioning democracy depends on informed citizens making thoughtful decisions. It depends on trust—both in one another and in democracy as a system of governance. It requires the ability to distinguish between truth and distorted representations of reality. This makes critical media literacy a fundamental prerequisite for democracy itself.
There is a need to strengthen teachers’ and other educators’ understanding of a democracy and human rights approach to evolving digital technologies, including AI and to foster critical thinking to secure democracy and human rights in the rapid development of new information technology, tackle disinformation, misinformation and fake news.
Our goal is to give teachers and other educators the necessary support and competences to empower children and young people to navigate in the rapidly changing digital reality.
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Valentina Papeikiene
Senior AdvisorAndriy Donets
Programme Coordinator UkraineMarianthi Antoniou
Project OfficerRead about the Centre’s other key priorities
