Teachers are now tasked with adding artificial intelligence literacy to the curriculum
The fight against ‘fake news’ in Finland begins in preschool classrooms, with the Nordic nation integrating media literacy into its national curriculum for decades and now adapting to the dangers of artificial intelligence.
The curriculum is part of a solid program to combat disinformation to make Finns more resistant to propaganda and fake news, especially that which crosses the 1,340-kilometer border with neighboring Russia.
Teachers are now tasked with adding artificial intelligence literacy to the curriculum, particularly after Russia intensified its disinformation campaign in Europe following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.
Finland’s entry into NATO in 2023 also provoked Moscow’s ire, although Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.
“We believe that having good media literacy skills is a very important civic skill,” said Kiia Hakkala, a pedagogy specialist from the city of Helsinki, to the Associated Press (AP).
“It is fundamental for the security of the nation and for the security of our democracy”, he warned.
At Tapanila Primary School, in a quiet neighborhood north of Helsinki, teacher Ville Vanhanen taught a group of fourth graders how to spot fake news.
While a TV screen displayed a banner with the question “Truth or Lie?”, student Ilo Lindgren evaluated the information.
“It’s a little difficult,” the 10-year-old admitted.
Vanhanen said her students have been learning about fake news and misinformation for years, starting by reading headlines and short texts.
The Finnish media also plays an important role, organizing an annual “Newspaper Week”, in which newspapers and other news are sent to young people for consumption.
In 2024, the Helsinki newspaper Helsingin Sanomat collaborated in the creation of a new “ABC Book of Media Literacy”, distributed to all 15-year-olds in the country when they started secondary education.
“It is very important for us to be seen as a place where you can obtain verified, reliable information produced by known people in a transparent way”, highlighted Jussi Pullinen, editor-in-chief of the newspaper.
Media literacy has been part of the Finnish educational curriculum since the 1990s, and additional courses are available for older adults who may be especially vulnerable to misinformation.
The skills are so ingrained in the culture that the Nordic nation of 5.6 million people regularly features 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.
With the rapid advancement of AI tools, educators and experts are rushing to teach students and the general public how to distinguish facts from fake news.
“It is already much more difficult in the information space to identify what is real and what is not,” recalled Martha Turnbull, director of hybrid influence at the Helsinki-based European Center of Excellence for Combating Hybrid Threats.
“As this technology develops, and especially as we move into things like AI agents (also known as agentic AI, where different software agents collaborate with each other for certain functions), I think that’s where it could become much more difficult for us to identify them,” he concluded.
