Conectaí: Education and Safety as a Trend

Hyperconnectivity and lack of access to information compromise the well-being and safety of teenagers online. Combined with social hypervulnerability, young people in the public school system face serious risks of violence that extend into the digital world.

To reverse this scenario and combat educational adult-centrism, Conectaí emerges to strengthen the agency of teenagers and young people in media literacy—working with them to develop mechanisms that promote digital citizenship and drive media education policies in the country.

Our objectives are to co-create media literacy training programs with public school students, understand how this learning process takes place, and build a network of educational stakeholders to ensure the continuity of these activities. In this project, we will:

• Conduct ethnographic research to understand the elements of engagement, appropriation, and practice of media literacy among young people in the public school system;
• Develop and implement a media literacy curriculum for digital citizenship, co-created with public school students;
• Engage adolescent ambassadors by supporting the development of their leadership capacities at the local level;
• Build a continuous and lasting partnership network between public school students and university students to foster media literacy education through peer-to-peer learning;
• Map and influence relevant political processes to contribute to the implementation of the National Strategy for Media Literacy, based on peer-to-peer education.

By strengthening the role of teenagers and young people in media literacy, Conectaí works alongside them to create mechanisms that promote digital citizenship and advance media education policies in Brazil.

Start year: 2024
Status: In progress
Funding: TikTok

Understanding the Change Proposed by Our Project

How do you get information about the world, communicate with your friends, and follow your biggest idols? Chances are, these answers all involve the internet and social media in some way. While this hasn’t always been the case, for today’s teenagers, the internet has been a constant presence. More specifically, social media has become the primary means of accessing information, expressing oneself, communicating, and finding entertainment. In fact, 97% of people between the ages of 9 and 17 are connected, and 86% of this group have social media profiles—even though platform guidelines are not designed for children and teenagers.

Why is adolescent hyperconnectivity a problem? First, social media platforms are not built for young users, meaning they lack specific guidelines tailored to their needs and create an online environment where harmful content circulates freely. Second, adolescence is a developmental stage in which critical autonomy, emotional tools, and identity formation are still in progress. This makes it difficult for teenagers to make informed decisions about digital consumption and establish boundaries that are essential for their well-being and the construction of their digital citizenship.

As a result, during a crucial stage of human development, teenagers are hyper-exposed to an online environment filled with harmful content. Without the necessary psychological and informational tools, this exposure can compromise their physical and mental safety and even contribute to the radicalization of youth.

On a broader scale, current public policies on digital education also present a challenge. Why? Because they remain adult-centered and fail to include young people in the co-creation of their own educational processes. This increases the social vulnerability of teenagers, who, without a sense of meaning and belonging in educational practices, do not fully adopt the media literacy tools necessary for building digital citizenship.

All these factors directly impact the school environment. Online violence is reflected in schools, bullying extends beyond class hours, the leakage of intimate images is normalized, digital gambling games become common among students, and many other situations arise in which internet use creates new barriers to emancipatory education.

We believe this reality can be different, and that the internet can be a tool for liberating, citizen-centered, and diverse education. In the project “Conectaí: Education and Safety as a Trend,” IRIS advocates for media literacy as the key to mitigating adolescents’ exposure to online risks. Teenagers need ways to develop autonomous engagement that allows them to use technology in a healthy way—and this can and should happen in a collective space, such as the classroom.

How Do We Put This into Practice?

Our strategy is based on three pillars: research, training, and school-university partnership networks. As a research-driven organization, we will conduct ethnographic research to identify the essential elements for youth engagement in media literacy learning. This research will inform the development of a Media Literacy for Digital Citizenship curriculum, which will be implemented through training programs co-created with public school students. But our educational action doesn’t stop there!

To ensure the continuity of media literacy education and foster autonomy in this learning process, we will establish a lasting partnership network between public school students and university students. Through this network, our Media Literacy Curriculum will be replicated via peer-to-peer education.

Aware that the proposed solution will only have a real impact if it is lasting and robust, throughout the implementation of Conectaí, we will engage with multiple stakeholders to support the implementation of the National Strategy for Media Literacy. In doing so, Conectaí will position Brazil as a leader in the global agenda of digital citizenship and media literacy policies.

We recognize the magnitude of this challenge—just as we recognize the expertise and dedication of our multidisciplinary team. IRIS has been committed to promoting meaningful connectivity since 2019, and we are confident that Conectaí will achieve its expected impact: to shape a generation of autonomous, critical-thinking teenagers equipped with the tools necessary to navigate the internet safely and confidently.