In today\u2019s fast-changing digital environment, young people are surrounded by an enormous amount of information every day. Social media platforms, online news, video content, influencers, artificial intelligence tools and digital communication channels shape the way young people learn, communicate, participate and form opinions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These developments offer many opportunities. Digital media can support learning, creativity, activism, civic engagement and cross-border cooperation. Young people today have more tools than ever before to express themselves, share ideas, connect with others and participate in public life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the digital environment also brings serious challenges. Misinformation and disinformation, manipulation of public discourse, hate speech, extremist narratives and AI-generated content can make it increasingly difficult to distinguish reliable information from misleading or harmful content. For young people, these challenges can affect trust, social cohesion, democratic participation and the ability to make informed decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, the Youth Media Literacy Declaration<\/strong> has been developed within the framework of the MEDIActive Youth Network, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Declaration highlights the importance of strengthening youth media literacy and critical thinking across Europe. It calls for stronger support to young people not only as consumers of information, but also as active, responsible and ethical creators of media content.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Declaration is based on five key principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first principle recognises media literacy and critical thinking as key competences<\/strong> for young people in the 21st century. These skills should be promoted through both formal and non-formal education, enabling young people to better understand, analyse and evaluate media content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second principle focuses on empowering young people<\/strong>. Youth should not be seen only as passive recipients of information. They should be supported to create responsible media content, express their views, participate in public debate and use digital tools in constructive and ethical ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third principle underlines the responsible use of digital technologies<\/strong>. Social media, digital platforms and artificial intelligence should be used in ways that promote transparency, responsibility, ethical principles and respect for democratic values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fourth principle stresses the importance of cooperation across sectors<\/strong>. Strengthening youth media literacy cannot be achieved by one sector alone. Youth organisations, educators, media professionals, civil society organisations, public institutions and private sector actors all have an important role to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fifth principle is dedicated to building resilient societies<\/strong>. By supporting media literacy and critical thinking among young people, societies can become more informed, democratic and resistant to manipulation, polarisation and authoritarian or extremist narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Declaration invites youth and civil society organisations, educational and training institutions, media actors and other relevant stakeholders across Europe to endorse it and reaffirm their commitment to youth media literacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By supporting the Declaration, organisations join a common European effort to promote critical thinking, responsible digital participation and democratic resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Youth Media Literacy Declaration is available here:
https:\/\/mediactiveyouth.org\/declaration\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Youth Media Literacy Declaration calls on youth and civil society organisations, educational institutions and media actors across Europe to support stronger youth media literacy and critical thinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,720,13],"tags":[305,304,721,286],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eu","category-europe","category-global","tag-critical-thinking","tag-media-literacy","tag-mediactive-youth-network","tag-youth","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2407"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2410,"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions\/2410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tymagazine.net\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}