The Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism (Minister: Yoo In-chon hereafter MCST) in partnership with the Korea Press Foundation (Chairman: Kim Hyo-jae hereafter KPF) has launched an AI Media Education program at 31 middle schools across the country including Baekseok Middle School in Incheon. This program starting on October 10 is part of the national agenda to strengthen media literacy education.

Urgent Need for AI Media Education for Youth as 83.7% of Deepfake Sexual Crime Suspects Are Teenagers

According to statistics released by the National Police Agency on September 26 there have been 812 reported cases of deepfake-related sexual crimes with 387 suspects apprehended. Alarmingly 324 of those suspects (83.7%) were teenagers. This highlights the urgent need to provide young people with education on the proper and safe use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in addition to technical approaches.

In response MCST and KPF have been developing an AI media education program for middle school students since the first half of this year. The program aims to educate students on the responsible use of AI technologies including how to critically evaluate and utilize them. The curriculum is designed to be engaging with a mix of theoretical and practical lessons across three key areas:

Understanding AI
Developing a critical perspective on AI
Creating content using AI.
The course will be delivered in 12 sessions per school with both lecture-based and hands-on activities.

Additional Recruitment of Middle Schools for AI Media Education Special Lectures Starting October 14

Following this program MCST and KPF will also begin recruiting additional middle schools from October 14 for short-term AI media education workshops. Schools interested in participating can apply for free through the media education portal Meca (www.meca.or.kr).

In addition experts are working on developing a comprehensive AI media education curriculum focusing not only on AI usage but also on its critical reception and application. The research outcomes will be used to design similar courses for high school and elementary school students helping to prevent potential harm from reckless use of AI technologies including deepfake manipulation.