The Internet is a tool that works immediately, however it also has problems, being the disinformation one of them. Unesco recognises teenagers are the most vulnerables to disinformation because of the increased use of internet and mobile devices at very early ages. For this reason, Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2021 is a major occasion to fight fake news, which are a problem in society and many people do not know how to identify them.
Every year Unesco encourages partners all over the world to promote Global Media and Information Literacy Week by organizing and registering events or activities. This year marks 10 years since the seeds of Global Media and Information Literacy Week were planted in 2011 in Morocco. In 2021 the UN General Assembly decided to commemorate the week citing the need for the dissemination of factual, timely, targeted, clear, accessible, multilingual and science-based information.
Education is the key to solve the disinformation problem in society. Everyone, focused on young people, needs to be equipped with media and information literacy competencies to understand the stakes, and to contribute to and benefit from information and communication opportunities. For this reason, media and information literacy is so important for people to interact with the media and information, because the quality of information everyone engages with largely determines perceptions, beliefs and attitudes.
Media and information literacy is an essential tool for people's development in the digital world where many times there is disinformation. As a consequence, the public needs certain knowledge to deal with fake news, such as, look who is the author of the news, check if it is published in a reliable media or check with other sources of information. Also everyone has the responsibility to not share unreliable messages to not damage democracy.
Internet and social media should be an opportunity to learn and both of them could also be a tool to media and information literacy for young people through educatication resources or workshops. However, for this to happen, teenagers have to receive basic training and a critical sense to cope with the digital world