It's up to state and territory governments to fund media literacy programs in schools, and a 2023 study of young Australians found only one in four surveyed received a lesson teaching them how to work out if news stories are true in the past year.
Year 11 Dickson College students are able to take the elective course, called 'Protect Yourself from Disinformation in Four Easy Steps'."I was wasting so much time on it every day, watching reels and it just wasn't great for me," he said.So the year 11 student from Canberra deleted the app from his phone."I wanted that time to focus on myself, my sports and my study so it's been great.
University of Canberra communication professor Mathieu O'Neil says the goal of the course is to help young people assess the credibility of information they encounter.Professor O'Neil said failing to teach young people how to navigate the proliferation of disinformation and misinformation online can have dangerous consequences.
"Only one in four young people said they had received a lesson at school in the past year to help them work out if news stories are true and can be trusted," the study found. "There needs to be some sort of realisation that this is really important, and I think it needs to be taught at an earlier age," he said."From the moment students start engaging with the internet – whether that's 12, 13 or 14 – they should have that understanding."Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the rise of artificial intelligence has "turbocharged" the volume and sophistication of online misinformation.
Ms Inman Grant said it was critical to build the digital literacy and resilience of young people, adding that parents also need support to do that. Sean Greenville wasn't inspired to ditch social media altogether but he now approaches it with a new level of scepticism.
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