These challenges are particularly acute among young people, who are highly active online but often lack the tools to critically assess the reliability of digital content. This project responds to these threats by developing and evaluating an innovative, game-based educational intervention designed to strengthen adolescents’ digital civic literacy and societal resilience.
At the heart of the intervention is the SOURCE game, a simulation-based educational tool developed through a research-driven design process that integrates expertise from researchers in game design, human-computer interaction, psychology, and educational sciences. The game simulates realistic scenarios with hybrid threats and tasks players with identifying manipulation, verifying information, and navigating democratic dilemmas under uncertainty. The game is specifically designed to address antagonist threats from fictionalized but geopolitically inspired foreign actors, modeled on current patterns of authoritarian influence, economic sabotage, and ideological extremism. By engaging students in democratic threat assessment, the game can promote critical thinking, multiperspectivity, and responsible civic action.
However, as the game is being developed to address a range of complex and sensitive issues, it is crucial that it be tested in diverse contexts to fully understand its impact and potential side effects. While the game is designed to strengthen civic reasoning and resilience against disinformation and threats against democracy, its effects may vary across cultural and educational settings. It is essential to evaluate its effectiveness in different countries and classrooms, ensuring that the intervention achieves its intended outcomes while avoiding any unintended negative consequences, such as increased cynicism, polarization, or overconfidence. This process of iterative testing and adaptation will help refine the game and maximize its potential as a tool for fostering democratic preparedness and civic responsibility among youth in the Nordic-Baltic region.
