Dangerous weakness

Only 44 percent of teenagers question fake news

(Bild: Jatuporn Tansirimas)

In times when fake news on social media is becoming more and more prevalent with the help of artificial intelligence, media literacy is more in demand than ever. However, teenagers show considerable weaknesses in this area in particular, as a special PISA evaluation shows.

As OECD Director of Education Andreas Schleicher explained on Tuesday on Ö1's "Morgenjournal", 15-year-olds in this country are performing poorly. Only 44 percent are able to check the quality of information online. In addition, more than one in three young people share information on social media without checking its veracity beforehand. According to the report, this puts Austria at the bottom of the statistics, behind Bulgaria and ahead of Morocco.

Expert believes schools have a duty
According to Schleicher, the main way to improve the situation is in schools. According to the OECD Education Director, reading literacy is still far too often understood as the processing of information. Whereas people used to simply learn the contents of textbooks by heart, today they also have to question information. "So that's something that is not yet so effective in Austria," laments Schleicher. 

Austria well below the OECD average
The proportion of pupils in Austria who find it easy to evaluate information is well below the OECD average. Young people in countries such as Singapore, Ireland and Denmark are particularly good at dealing with online information. They are also often taught in school how to separate false information from real information.