Albert Naa, Chief Executive Officer of Norgence IT Solutions, has raised concerns about the challenges young people face in identifying ‘fake news,’ citing limited capacity and exposure as key factors.
Speaking to Gifty Eyram Kudiabor on the Daybreak Upper East show on A1 Radio, he explained that many young people lack the tools and experience needed to verify information. Without access to alternative sources for comparison, they are more likely to accept and share misleading content.
“It will be difficult for you as a young person to do that, and the difficulty comes in several folds. For instance, you do not have the capacity to vet. You haven’t seen other alternative sources or things to compare with what you are seeing right now, so it becomes easier for you to be carried away by what you are seeing,” he said.
He emphasized the need for stronger oversight of Ghana’s digital space, calling on relevant institutions, including cybersecurity agencies, to play a more active role in monitoring content and protecting users. “The country, Ghana, should watch its digital space and the content that its citizens are flooded with,” he noted.
Albert Naa proposed the introduction of what he described as positive censorship, where digital platforms collaborate with authorities to label content appropriately. “We have positive censorship where you work with the platform owners to be able to ensure that the content that is coming to their people comes with certain tags and flags that would help the individual to be able to tell that this is this,” he explained.
This approach, he suggested, could involve tagging artificial intelligence–generated material and distinguishing it from human-created content to help users better assess credibility.
He added that the challenge is not limited to young people alone, as many content consumers generally lack the ability to verify and critically analyze the information they encounter online. “As we speak right now, young people, and not only young people, content consumers have little capacity to decipher the content and also verify,” he added.
A1 Radio | 101.1 Mhz | Gifty Eyram Kudiabor | Bolgatanga
