NewTechKids is collaborating with IKC Metropool, a primary and middle school in Amsterdam southeast, to integrate technology education into its formal school curriculum. For the 2025-2026 school year, NewTechKids is teaching all students at this small school once per week, covering digital literacy, introduction to digital productivity tools, computer science and AI literacy.
For older students (ages 10-12), our first module focused on hacking for good. We taught them how to stay safe online and protect their data using the tools and techniques used by white hat hackers. We also provided insight into how bad hackers use fake news and misinformation for social engineering and technical attacks.
Some of our recent lessons focused on teaching kids about AI deepfakes and the importance of verifying the news they see on social media. Kids these days rely on social media for their news because they have not developed the habit of consuming news from the mainstream and established media. We taught them the difference between verified and unverified news and what to look out for, how easy it is to manufacture fake news through AI text, image and video generators, and how to verify that news is true.
We noticed that asking students to verify stories using “news websites” was too broad for them because they actually don’t know established news sources. So we challenged them to figure out what stories were real news vs. fake news by verifying them on the top 5-6 news sites for kids in the Netherlands. The result: we hit the nail on the head! Students were able to make more targeted searches. Students said “Hey, Jeugdjournaal covers a lot of news” and “I need to start watching het Klokhuis again. I used to watch it all the time when I was little’.”
So note to parents: make it a daily routine to expose your kids to verified and established media. Start with kids news programs and graduate to mainstream media, using sports matches, entertainment events and elections as ways to position these news outlets and their relevance to kids and teens.