A new Erasmus+ initiative called DIGI-Story is betting that the best defence against online manipulation is not another lecture on internet safety, but tools young people will actually use. Funded by the European Union, the project aims to close a gap that researchers across three countries found surprisingly wide: the distance between how competent young people believe themselves to be online and how they actually behave when confronted with misinformation, opaque algorithms and privacy risks.
What the Research Revealed
DIGI-Story began with fieldwork in Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic, combining questionnaires with qualitative interviews to map how young people actually navigate digital spaces day to day. The results were telling. Digital engagement among respondents was consistently high, yet this familiarity with devices and platforms did not translate into sound judgment about what they encountered there. Many could use social media fluently without understanding how content is filtered and ranked for them, or without pausing to question the reliability of a source before sharing it. This mismatch between perceived skill and demonstrated practice is precisely the kind of blind spot that makes disinformation effective and personal data exposure routine. The same research logic that underpins digital literacy work also informs discussions around online privacy tools, where users often assume protection they do not actually have - a concern shared by services such as a provider using RAM-only servers, which markets itself on the principle that infrastructure choices, not marketing claims, determine real privacy outcomes.
A Guide Built Around Six Pillars
Drawing on these findings, the consortium developed an Online Behavioural Guide structured around six interconnected themes: habits around internet and social-network use; information versus disinformation; responsible content consumption and production; data protection and online safety; content personalisation and algorithmic influence; and management of digital footprints and privacy. Rather than treating these as separate modules, the guide presents them as facets of a single competence - the ability to read a digital environment critically before acting within it. That framing matters, because algorithmic curation, data collection and misinformation rarely operate in isolation; they reinforce one another in ways that are easy to overlook without deliberate instruction.
Storytelling as a Teaching Method
Rather than relying solely on written material, DIGI-Story delivers its content through videos, podcasts, comics and infographics, formats chosen because they mirror how young audiences already consume information. This transmedia approach treats storytelling itself as a teaching method, embedding lessons about source verification, privacy settings and algorithmic bias inside formats that feel native to social platforms rather than imposed from outside them.
Who Is Behind the Project
The consortium driving DIGI-Story brings together EduHive in the Czech Republic, Neotalentway in Spain and Storytellme in Portugal, each contributing distinct expertise in education, youth engagement and media production. Their stated ambition extends beyond students: educators and youth workers are treated as equally important audiences, since their ability to guide digital conversations shapes how effectively young people absorb these skills in practice. In an information environment where manipulation and data exploitation are increasingly automated, that kind of structured, practical literacy may prove more durable than any single policy response.