In Finland, classes in recognizing fake news, disinformation

in this era of disinformation almost everywhere a question when it comes to identifying scams hoaxes and fake news are you smarter than a fourth grader the answer might surprise you as Chris Livesay discovered to say that Finland values education is an understatement no that's not Finnish their speaking this is a Spanish class at a public elementary school in the Capitol Helsinki and yet their language proficiency is not the only thing that makes these fourth grade Finns so remarkable at just 10 years old they're already learning to separate fact can you figure out which is the

fake news from fiction today's assignment let's find out if an alien really did land on Earth in the past decade 2013 yep they also speak English I don't think that there has been ever somebody who seen an alien so like it's already fake because it says that it was 10 years ago in 2013 and still nobody has seen aliens ever so you're saying that if this happened 10 years ago you probably would have heard about an alien yes these kids are already Pros they've been at it since they were six and they'll keep sharpening their

ability to spot hoaxes avoid scams and debunk propaganda throughout their education just like every child in Finland Li Andersson is the former education Minister I think it's should be seen as a Civic skill in the the current society that we live in because we all live in an Information Society nowadays or it's called an Information Society right but actually um some of the information is mis- or disinformation for this small Nordic nation of just 5 and a half million rooting out misinformation is a Civic skill born of necessity over the years Finland has found itself

the target of fake news campaigns by a longtime foe Russia a few examples pro-russian trolls circulating videos and making debunked claims of Finnish tanks mobilizing at the Russian Border in reality they were heading to a training exercise in the opposite direction the same Russian media has been stoking anti-migrant sentiment in Finland Finnish cities will be surrounded by a ring of burning ghettos fueling protests and violence against refugees the misinformation War has Finns worried about the powerful neighbor with whom they share an 800 mile long border After All Fins have seen how Russia has treated another

neighbor Ukraine last year Finland joined NATO and they're building a wall along the border with Russia but it's this fake news firewall for example the Russian news site does anyone have anything on on that they're counting on to safeguard this or any country's most precious resource the truth Economist New York Times media literacy as it's called is woven into every class like high school English with Mrs. Terhi Korpela then I also provided you with um fake news sites as they call them here they learned to spot the red flags this article says that Facebook's AI

chat uh backs up the claim that uh 2020 president election was rigged uh and instead of the current President Joe Biden the real winner was actually Donald Trump then back up their reasoning this I'm very critical about this article and the whole site uh the Gateway pundit is far right site and uh it's known for being biased and Publishing fake news Zamzam Mohamed grew up going to American schools abroad were you were you taught to identify fake news not really it was only here when I started to like get that you know I used to

have questions but every time I would ask them the teacher or anybody else would be like no this is the way it is like this is it's written here but only here and now that I've come here I'm able to like question a lot so critical thinking is a real priority it's a huge Priority One that gives English teacher Terhi Korpela hope for the future I have to say I was very impressed good good to hear yeah I wish more adults were capable of doing what these kids are doing yeah I wish the exact same

thing I sometimes at home I we know I have discussions with my husband and they they are not as sort of civilized as as the youngsters by virtually every global standard Finland ranks near the top in education but when it comes to resilience against false information Finland is the top first out of 41 European countries according to a recent survey Educators Credit a system that begins the moment they enter public school when their lives still revolve around fairy tales and playing pretend Sanna Lindau teaches kindergarten these are kids who still believe in the Easter Bunny

and in Santa Claus definitely yeah you're not telling them that's fake news are you well I think that with the Santa Claus I leave it to the parents we act together or we we play we draw we we can live in the fantasy world as well of course ah so there is a place for Fantasy yeah yeah yeah of course but there's also a place to start familiarizing children with the differences between advertisements and stories poems and publicity she says all while teaching the country's youngest how to navigate and understand the internet former education Minister

Li Andersson you start from preschool I think as I said it's more about familiarizing children also with what the digital world is to make sure that all children have a sufficient set of digital skills and on top of that you also have to teach them how to um act in the digitalized world how to interpret different type of text and so on it's a skill she insists that's not only Central to finland's education system it's Central to finland's democracy I guess for me the big question is what's at stake I mean what happens if kids

come out of school and they can't identify the difference between fake news and legitimate news if that happens I think it makes our societies very vulnerable I think it will also polarize political discussion um there is a saying in Finnish you have the right to your own opinion but you do not have the right to your own facts