In Finland, children learn from kindergarten age to understand a world in which algorithms help shape reality. Media literacy there is not a school subject but part of national culture. From recognising sources to understanding AI. And while China responds with control and Czechia is still looking for its own path, northern Europe shows that the future belongs to those who understand technology and algorithms.
In the north of Europe, an experiment is under way that could define how future generations understand truth. In one Finnish kindergarten, a teacher helps children write a story with the help of AI. The children invent characters and a plot, while the AI writes, draws and generates. The teacher explains how a machine can produce text and images. At first glance it is a creative game. In fact, it is part of a long-term strategy to raise a society that can find its way in a world where algorithms help create reality.
Finland has worked with media literacy for almost fifty years. Not as a one-off subject, but as a language of society. Media education has been anchored in the national curriculum since the 1970s, and in 2014 it was extended to social networks, digital content and algorithms, drawing on the concept of multiliteracy, that is, the ability to understand and analyse information in its various forms.
According to Finnish government documentation, “media education deeply embedded in educational structures and public institutions”. Even three-year-olds examine pictures and sounds. By the age of seven they learn to recognise trustworthy sources. At nine they create their own mini research projects and learn to understand perspectives and missing information. In maths lessons they talk about algorithms, and in civics lessons about public space and the manipulation of language and images.
Its success showed during the pandemic, when Finns were better than most of Europe at identifying disinformation and at resisting international conspiracy theories.
A small country with high information density
The value of the Finnish media market in 2019 was roughly €3.9 billion. The Czech advertising market in 2023 exceeded CZK 145 billion, roughly €6 billion. Czechia has almost twice as many inhabitants, but only a somewhat larger media market. The difference is not in capacity but in the culture of working with information.
AI changes the rules
It is no longer just a matter of verifying sources. In an AI environment, a source may not exist at all. Images that never existed. Voices that no one ever uttered. Hard data that may be synthetic. Finland responds through education. It teaches children to understand technology before technology persuades them.
China: the opposite trajectory
In October 2025 the Cyberspace Administration of China announced rules under which influencers who want to speak on areas such as finance, medicine or law must hold an appropriate academic degree or a professional licence. Platforms are required to verify qualifications and to label AI content.
And Czechia? It has started tackling finfluencers
Czechia does not yet require creators to hold a degree. But the first line is emerging in investment content. The study Influencers on YouTube and Investment Advice (2023) warns that some Czech finfluencers move on thin ice between content creation and unlicensed investment advice. The study calls this “thin regulatory ice”.
At the same time, Czechia introduced a registration requirement for large digital creators from 2025, which shows that state oversight is starting to arrive.
Where we stand
Finland says: educate. China says: control. Czechia is at the start of its decision. It is important to add that the European Union is also preparing a further framework for overseeing digital creators, extending the Digital Services Act and the AI Act with rules on safety, transparency and qualifications when creating content with a public impact. Discussions within the EU suggest that investment advice, health and education may be among the first areas to be regulated more closely at European level (European Commission, policy drafts and communications on implementing the DSA and AI Act, 2024 to 2025).
It is clear that the time has come when it is no longer decisive who speaks loudest. What will matter is who speaks most competently, and who can keep trust in a space where reality is created within milliseconds.
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