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Finnish children learn media literacy at 3 years old. It’s protection against Russian propaganda
Finland has been fighting fake news by teaching media literacy to children as young as 3. The Nordic nation includes this in its national cu
By JAMES BROOKSUpdated 5:17 AM AEDT, January 6, 2026
HELSINKI (AP) — The battle against fake news in Finland starts in preschool classrooms.
For decades, the Nordic nation has woven media literacy, including the ability to analyse different kinds of media and recognise disinformation, into its national curriculum for students as young as 3 years old. The coursework is part of a robust anti-misinformation program to make Finns more resistant to propaganda and false claims, especially those crossing over the 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with neighbouring Russia.
Now, teachers are tasked with adding artificial intelligence literacy to their curriculum, especially after Russia stepped up its disinformation campaign across Europe following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago. Finland’s ascension into NATO in 2023 also provoked Moscow’s ire, though Russia has repeatedly denied it interferes in the internal affairs of other countries.
“We think that having good media literacy skills is a very big civic skill,” Kiia Hakkala, a pedagogical specialist for the City of Helsinki, told The Associated Press. “It’s very important to the nation’s safety and to the safety of our democracy.”
AI literacy becoming a vital skill
At Tapanila Primary School, in a quiet neighbourhood north of Helsinki, teacher Ville Vanhanen taught a group of fourth graders how to spot fake news. As a TV screen beamed a “Fact or Fiction?” banner, student Ilo Lindgren evaluated the prompt.
“It is a little bit hard,” the 10-year-old admitted.
Vanhanen said his students have been learning about fake news and disinformation for years, beginning with reading headlines and short texts. In a recent class, the fourth graders were tasked with coming up with five things to look out for when consuming online news to ensure it’s trustworthy. Now they are moving onto AI literacy, which is quickly becoming a vital skill.
“We’ve been studying how to recognise if a picture or a video is made by AI,” added Vanhanen, a teacher and vice principal at the school.
Finnish media also play a role, organising an annual “Newspaper Week,” where papers and other news are sent to young people to consume. In 2024, Helsinki-based Helsingin Sanomat collaborated on a new “ABC Book of Media Literacy,” distributed to every 15-year-old in the country as they began upper secondary school.
“It’s really important for us to be seen as a place where you can get information that’s been verified, that you can trust, and that’s done by people you know in a transparent way,” Jussi Pullinen, the daily newspaper’s managing editor, said.
Democracy is challenged through disinformation
Media literacy has been part of the Finnish educational curriculum since the 1990s, and additional courses are available for older adults who might be especially vulnerable to misinformation.
The skills are so ingrained into the culture that the Nordic nation of 5.6 million people regularly ranks at the top of the European Media Literacy Index. The index was compiled by the Open Society Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria, between 2017 and 2023.
“I don’t think we envisioned that the world would look like this,” Finnish Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz said. “That we would be bombarded with disinformation, that our institutions are challenged — our democracy really challenged — through disinformation.”
And with the rapid advancement of AI tools, educators and experts are rushing to teach students and the rest of the public how to tell what’s fact and what’s fake news.
“It already is much harder in the information space to spot what’s real and what’s not real,” Martha Turnbull, director of hybrid influence at the Helsinki-based European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, said. “It just so happens that right now, it’s reasonably easy to spot the AI-generated fakes because the quality of them isn’t as good as it could be.”
She added: “But as that technology develops, and particularly as we move toward things like agentic AI, I think that’s when it could become much more difficult for us to spot.”
Europe needs to kick the Americans out yesterday. It's insane that the EU has so many military bases of a completely rogue country that is actively threatening an EU member with annexation of their territory. Yankee Go Home!
One thing about Americans voting for Trump is that they didn't fuck up just their country but fucked up the whole world too.
Even CHINA abstained from voting on this and yet USA voted against, alongside Russia.
Everyone shut up about Charlie Kirk now, he’s dead we’ve made the memes move on.
Because Russian just sent drones into Poland in what’s being called “a test of NATO” to see if NATO responds and with who.
Because the biggest extinction event currently is still occurring off the coast of Australia with almost all Marine life being smothered by algae that should not be there like that.
Because we still don’t have the epsitine files and this is likely a distraction to get it out of the media.
Because far right parties (neo-n’s if you will) are gathering across the globe.
Because climate change is still an issue.
Because Women’s right are under attack in multiple countries and areas.
Because LGBTQIA rights are being taken away.
Because school shootings are still occurring in America with little to no news coverage.
Because there is a genocide in Gaza.
Because there is famine around the globe.
Because Nepal reportedly shot 19 people for opposing a social media black out.
Because Indonesia arrested reported over 1000 people for protesting against their government.
Because of the Congo.
Because of Ukraine.
Because of every other person and child who is not safe.
Choose a different issue, THERE ARE MANY TO CHOOSE FROM THAT ISNT A WHITE MAN GETTING SHOT
Lots of people rightfully have mixed feelings about NATO, and they’ve probably seen different terminology and articles thrown about over the past few years following Sweden and Finland joining.
But it’s become pretty clear over the last few weeks that a lot of people don’t know what Article 5 is, and why the US following through on threats to annex Greenland is the end of NATO.
Article 5 can be called by any state under threat, and is considered as ‘An attack on one, is an attack on all’. It’s the cornerstone of NATO as an alliance, and calls on other countries in the alliance to take supportive action, militarily or otherwise.
For Americans, the reason why the reaction from Europe has been so aggressive is because Article 5 has only ever been triggered once, and it was to aid the United States after 9/11 leading to the invasion of Afghanistan.
CAVEAT TIME. Tumblr’s favourite game because if I don’t mention it here, someone uses it as gotcha despite being a different point - Yes, the prolonged invasion of Afghanistan was a clusterfuck. It achieved very little, destabilised the region and was responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths caused by direct war, and estimated 430,000 indirect deaths caused by infrastructure collapse and disease.
End of Caveat time.
Regarding the recent threats on Greenland, whether right or wrong - there’s a strong feeling that NATO allies ‘answered the call’ of the United States when it asked for it. Not just in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 but in the prolonged conflict in the aftermath.
So chest-puffing from some Americans about how ‘We can totally take on NATO, Your nothing without us etc’ is generally viewed as spitting in the face of your allies because the US is the only country that NATO has initiated article 5 over.
The US is the only country ever to invoke NATO's mutual defense clause, and when we did, the other NATO countries came running. But NATO is a defensive alliance--as in, if a NATO country is attacked, all of NATO jumps in. NATO countries don't get to start a war of choice and then expect other NATO countries to help with it.
The orange shitgibbon and his MAGAts don't seem to be able to understand that, nor do they understand that when you threaten and abuse your friends, you very quickly have none. Likewise, when you refuse to honor existing agreements (or threaten to refuse to honor them--like the shitgibbon floating a refusal to honor NATO's mutual defense pact if it comes up), no one will be willing to make any new agreements with you. And when you attack a country in the middle of talks, why would they agree to further talks?
People mocking the idea of the U.S. buying Greenland don’t know history.
1867 – Andrew Johnson: explored buying Greenland & Iceland (right after Alaska).
WWII – FDR: U.S. took over Greenland’s defense while Denmark was occupied.
1946 – Truman: offered $100M in gold to buy it.
Cold War – Eisenhower → Kennedy: nonstop negotiations for bases, radar, missiles.
Post–Cold War – Clinton/Bush/Obama: expanded Arctic security & missile defense.
2019 – Trump: said publicly what presidents discussed privately for 150+ years.
The U.S. didn’t “suddenly” want Greenland. We have been defending it, negotiating it, and embedding there since the 1800s. The US has always known that Greenland equals Arctic power, shipping lanes, missiles, minerals.
Trump didn’t invent the idea of Greenland becoming part of the US – He just said the quiet part out loud!!