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 data literacy workbooks for youngsters aged six to 10 to equip them with expertise to establish faux information, confirm info 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, stated training remained an important device for addressing the rising unfold of false info.

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

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

Similarly, the Secretary-General of the Nigerian National Commission for UNESCO, Dr Lateef Idowu Olagunju, stated youngsters wanted sensible instruments to evaluate info in an more and more complicated digital setting.

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 using quick animated movies to make media literacy classes extra accessible to youngsters, together with educating them to confirm bulletins reminiscent of claims that faculties could be closed.

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

She stated 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 confused that the data setting required steerage 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, stated the initiative was developed in response to the necessity to set up accountable info habits earlier than youngsters get older.

She stated the workbook, generally known as Young Truth Detectives, comprises six missions designed to make studying interactive and fascinating, alongside a facilitator’s information for academics, mother and father and neighborhood teams.

According to her, the supplies are meant to be used past formal school rooms, together with church buildings, mosques and different neighborhood settings.

Okafor-Onumah stated the inspiration deliberate to work with companions to distribute copies to colleges, together with these in rural communities, via a school-adoption strategy. She added that the books weren’t at the moment 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 stated the broader objective was to advertise accountable info consumption amongst youngsters and strengthen efforts to deal with misinformation and data manipulation in Nigeria.