Building on UNESCO’s Global Youth Hackathon, this programme was launched on 24 April 2026 at Jinxiu Primary School in Pudong, Shanghai. The event gathered young people aged from 7 to 18 to develop creative projects in response to the growing impact of generative AI on information ecosystems.
This initiative represents a strategic opportunity for advancing media and information literacy in China as a holistic competency that must be deeply interwoven with learning capacity, critical thinking and sound judgment. It is essential to enable young people not only to access information, but also to question and evaluate it, engaging with AI technologies in a critical and ethical manner.
Xie JingProfessor, School of Journalism, Fudan University
Organized under the theme, Play Smart with AI: Think Smarter, Create Better with Media and Information Literacy, the hackathon promotes key MIL competencies, such as questioning information, identifying bias, understanding how AI-generated content is produced and making informed decisions in digital environments. It contributes to UNESCO’s mandate to advance media and information literacy through informal learning.
The call for projects is structured around four thematic tracks:
- Primary level (U12): “My AI Super Assistant”, focusing on creative human–AI interaction;
- Lower secondary (U15): “My AI Pitfall Guide”, promoting factchecking, verification and digital resilience;
- Upper secondary (U18): “AI for Social Good”, encouraging youth-led solutions aligned with sustainable development and positive social impact;
- International and bilingual track: A global dialogue component inviting English-language video submissions on AI governance, ethics and cross-cultural perspectives.
Yugui Culture, the implementing partner in China, is an organization working in collaboration with schools, universities and other national stakeholders, including the Shanghai Education Development Foundation, the Shanghai Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment Foundation, and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute. It provides various mentoring opportunities from experts to support participants through the ideation and submission process. Selected participants will have the opportunity to present their projects at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
UNESCO’s Youth Hackathon has been a true source of inspiration for us. This edition, dedicated to the youth of China, calls on young minds to embrace AI with media and information literacy, and harness its power to understand their potential and limits, steering technology toward solving real-world challenges. It serves as a bridge connecting Chinese youth to the global stage.
Junyan LiuCEO of Yugui Culture
As artificial intelligence increasingly shapes how young people access, create and share information, media and information literacy becomes more essential than ever. Through this initiative, UNESCO is empowering youth in China not only to use AI creatively, but also to engage with it critically and ethically, so they can help build more inclusive and trustworthy digital futures
Mariya GabrielAssistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO
Yugui Culture, a member of the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Alliance, has been promoting media literacy education in China through curriculum development, capacity-building programmes and public outreach. It has also organized national editions of Global Media and Information Literacy Week in Shanghai, bringing together educators, experts and youth to share practices and advance the integration of MIL into education systems.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/play-smart-ai-unesco-supports-media-and-information-literacy-youth-hackathon-china?hub=701
