UNESCO, Partners Target Fake News With Media Literacy Books For Children

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and its companions have unveiled media and knowledge literacy workbooks for youngsters aged six to 10 to equip them with abilities to determine pretend information, confirm data and assume critically earlier than sharing content material.

The workbooks, introduced at an occasion on the United Nations House in Abuja, are designed to assist youngsters recognise misinformation, disinformation, hate speech and different types of dangerous on-line content material.

Speaking on the occasion, UNESCO Representative to Nigeria and Head of the UNESCO Abuja Office, Dr Isaías Barreto da Rosa, mentioned schooling remained a significant software for addressing the rising unfold of false data.

He mentioned educating youngsters to examine information, query data sources and keep away from sharing unverified content material would contribute to constructing a extra knowledgeable society.

Barreto da Rosa mentioned UNESCO’s media and knowledge literacy programmes have been geared toward serving to individuals perceive and use data responsibly, including that the organisation supported the initiative due to its potential to construct these abilities from an early age.

Similarly, the Secretary-General of the Nigerian National Commission for UNESCO, Dr Lateef Idowu Olagunju, mentioned youngsters wanted sensible instruments to evaluate data in an more and more advanced digital surroundings.

He famous that youngsters ought to be taught to query who created a bit of knowledge, the motive behind it and whether or not it had been verified earlier than sharing it.

Olagunju additionally highlighted the usage of brief animated movies to make media literacy classes extra accessible to youngsters, together with educating them to confirm bulletins akin to claims that faculties can be closed.

1. The Director of the International Media and Information Literacy Institute (IMILI), Dr Sharon Omotoso, known as for a collective effort by mother and father, educators and different stakeholders to information youngsters’s engagement with media and expertise.

She mentioned mother and father should not solely monitor what youngsters devour on-line but additionally educate themselves about digital dangers, together with scams, on-line exploitation, privateness breaches and the misuse of synthetic intelligence.

Omotoso burdened that the data surroundings required steering and accountable conduct from all stakeholders, including that youngsters wanted the talents to guard themselves from dangerous content material and unsafe on-line interactions.

In her remarks, Executive Director of the Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue Foundation (MILID Foundation), Chiamaka Okafor-Onumah, mentioned the initiative was developed in response to the necessity to set up accountable data habits earlier than youngsters get older.

She mentioned the workbook, generally known as Young Truth Detectives, accommodates six missions designed to make studying interactive and interesting, alongside a facilitator’s information for lecturers, mother and father and group teams.

According to her, the supplies are supposed to be used past formal lecture rooms, together with church buildings, mosques and different group settings.

Okafor-Onumah mentioned the muse deliberate to work with companions to distribute copies to varsities, together with these in rural communities, by means of a school-adoption strategy. She added that the books weren’t at present on the market and that future plans included translating them into native languages to develop entry.

The initiative was organised by the MILID Foundation in partnership with the Two Books and One Pen Initiatives and Zedx Original, with help from UNESCO.

The organisers mentioned the broader purpose was to advertise accountable data consumption amongst youngsters and strengthen efforts to handle misinformation and knowledge manipulation in Nigeria.