Digital Literacy

The project is designed to equip young people with skills to question the content they encounter online. We also enable young people to recognise some of the techniques that influence their ideas, opinions and real life behaviour. We do this by running workshops with young people, by giving teachers the tools and training they need to teach these skills in the classroom and by creating digital resources that educators can use. The resources at www.digitaldisruption.co.uk target the ‘digital native’ generation (11-19 year olds) who are often confident, but not competent Internet users. One in four young people do not make any checks at all when visiting a new website. Less than 1 in 10 ask who made the site and why. One third of young people believe that information generated by search engines must be true and 15 per cent base their opinions of a website on how it looks and feels to use. Digital Disruption seeks to equip young people with the skills they need, yet often lack, to be more discerning and savvy online.

The focus on Digital Literacy as a means of preventing online radicalisation all stemmed from a project in the London borough of Tower Hamlets in 2009. The project set out to prevent young people from being radicalised in the borough. This was after it was learnt that extremist messages were recorded onto audiotapes and placed into the shoes of young Muslims whilst they were at prayer at a local mosque. The Young People we were working with didn’t engage well with us as outsiders playing devil’s advocate and trying to counter the radical views. On a collaborative journey with the group we diversified and broadened the focus of engagement to equip them with the skills to be more discerning instead of providing counter-narrative. An approach that taught them to recognise lies and manipulation instead of telling them what they should and shouldn’t believe. We started advocating that knowledge is power and we got them asking the question ‘who owns truth?’ It was this local project in Tower Hamlets where Digital Disruption was born.

Some of the resources, particularly those helping young people to understand, identify and deconstruct propaganda continue to get endorsed by organisations seeking to prevent online radicalisation. Think Tanks Demos and ISD, The UK’s Association of Chief Police Officers and the Youth Justice Board have all played a part in advocating our work. In 2013 Digital Disruption helped shape the Danish Ministry’s efforts to curb online radicalisation during 3 days of talks and workshops in Copenhagen. The outcomes helped influence increasing the prominence of Digital Literacy training in their national curriculum.

Contact details:

Digital Disruption
Bold Creative
13a Boundary Street
London, E2 7JE
United Kingdom

Luke Newbold
Email: luke@digitaldisruption.co.uk

Martin Orton
Email: martin@digitaldisruption.co.uk

Tel: (+44) 020 3287 5880