Better Internet for Kids

The teaching programme is intended for lower secondary and upper secondary school and contains varied learning activities. It includes four separate videos and a magazine with articles, tasks, dilemmas and quizzes and a poster with tips and advice for identifying deepfakes. By completing the programme, the students practice their media literacy skills, their critical thinking and source awareness, in line with the national curriculum.

Social media and manipulated content

According the Norwegian Media Authority's survey Children and Media 2020, children and young people stay up to date with the news primarily through social media. Young people also come across fake news more often than the rest of the population. The majority of young people who report seeing fake news on social media platforms, stated in the same survey that they did not check further whether the content was fake or not.

“New technologies make it increasingly difficult to detect fake news and manipulated content. At the same time, we know that it is easier to spread false and manipulated content on social media. When this is the most important source of content for many young people, we must bear in mind that they may be particularly vulnerable. Then, good teaching plans and concrete tips on how to reveal this form of manipulation are significant.”

Thomas Haugan-Hepsø, Coordinator of the Norwegian SIC and Manager of the Safer Internet project at the Norwegian Media Authority

About the programme

• The teaching programme on deepfakes was developed by Tenk (Think), the school division of the Norwegian fact-checking service Faktisk.no, in collaboration with the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre.
• It is available online on the Norwegian Media Authority’s website.
• A full version video with English subtitles is available on YouTube
• An English version of the poster will be shared soon, together with more information about the teaching programme in the BIK resource gallery.

Find out more about the work of the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre, including their awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services – or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.