Walk into a classroom and ask a group of teenagers what phishing is and prepare yourself - not for blank stares, but for a group of young people who know the answers and who will share their experiences more openly than you expected.
This is exactly what happened to us at workshops in four schools in Ulcinj, Bar, Zeta and Danilovgrad. And as much as we tried to change their perspective and bring some new knowledge, they did the same for us.
When we worked with these four classes, the level of digital literacy of these students, both elementary and high school students, was truly impressive. When we put weak passwords on the screen (*marko2009*, *12345678*, *lozinka2026*), the laughter was almost immediate - who doesn't know that today. They were able to explain why each of them was predictable, what makes it easy to crack, what a better version would look like. When we went through classic phishing scenarios: "Click urgently to confirm your account", "Vote for me via this link", "Look at this picture of you" - the students not only recognized that they were suspicious. They had been in these situations, or knew someone who had been. They also knew how this system works - but just like their friends or the adults around them, they still sometimes fell for it.
The gap that actually worries
During the workshops, we asked and listened to how much of what they know they actually apply - use different passwords, turn on two-factor authentication, don't click right away, check privacy settings, think before you post, send, or forward. Honest answers like "sometimes" or "some of the time" are actually a reality that isn't just typical for teenagers.
We all know what we should do, but we don't always do it or often enough. When was the last time you changed all the account passwords you have?
For teenagers, social pressure adds a real and even greater burden: the gap between online and offline is growing, having or not having a social media account is a message, and time spent online is increasingly seen as a risk to offline life. Setting up a password manager at fourteen seems like a superfluous step - until something happens. Something like a hacked account, money from a card that goes where it shouldn't. Add to that the screenshots and memes that are created, even gifs, and you have additional worries and headaches.
Digital violence as everyday life
The topic of digital violence and fake profiles naturally leans on safety and those first steps we take to be safe. Because what we do to protect ourselves sometimes, or increasingly often, is not enough. Students shared with us experiences and details of various situations they find themselves in almost every day and from which they find solutions. And this was another reminder of how normalized some behaviors have become - that we now simply note them and move on without getting to the root of the problem. They described fake profiles created to falsely present themselves as classmates.
Photos manipulated into memes and gifs, circulating on platforms and group chats. In several cases, parents were involved. The police were contacted. Reactions, when they came, were late - and there was always a "that's how it is now" feeling in the air. That doesn't mean they're okay with it - and we could hear and see that through working with them.
But there remains a big gap: from "what happened" to "what can be done", there was no lack of ideas, but there was a lack of responsibility and understanding of how much each of us is part of both the problem and the solution. As they themselves said: "we don't always know where it starts, it just goes around. We can't do much." And that's where we should all have our role and know how to play it in order to solve problems.
Recognition is not enough. Responsibility is.
One could conclude that young people are apathetic and disinterested, but that does not reflect these situations. The line between online and offline has become so blurred that understanding the world we live in is increasingly difficult. And AI does not help much here because, unfortunately, it is more often used to create this kind of content, so we ourselves are confused about what is real and what is not.
And therein lies our shared responsibility. Algorithms reward attention, emotion, and reaction. Your feed shows you what you’re most likely to respond to, not what’s most accurate. Understanding that the system is designed to elicit a reaction changes the way you relate to what you see. It doesn’t make you immune. But it gives you a framework — and a reason to pause before you share. The pace of life we live, whether we’re new-age teenagers or adults who grew up without the internet and now live digitally, is such that we rarely stop and take a breath before liking, sharing, or commenting.
Recognition is the first step and it seems to be at an enviable level. What comes after, and what is much harder to build, is responsibility. Understanding that what we do online, what we share, what we keep quiet about - all of that carries weight and requires a certain response. A student who doesn't forward harmful content, but doesn't report it either, is making a decision. As is an adult who passes by something disturbing in a community group chat. And that's why we've talked a lot about how important it is to both block and report, but also to share the experience with those around us, because not everyone has the same level of information or the strength to do what they should.
Responsibility is not something that comes naturally from knowing the rules - because that part is the easiest, as we have seen from these meetings. Responsibility needs to be actively learned, demonstrated and practiced - regardless of the generation we come from.
What is required of all of us?
Fake profiles, content circulating, digital bullying that has become background noise - these are not problems that someone solves individually by turning on two-factor authentication and thinking before posting. They require the presence of adults who are truly informed and consistent. A community where a student who reports something is welcomed with understanding, not dismissed. Conversations that happen before something goes wrong, not just afterwards.
The students in all four workshops gave us as much, if not more, than we brought to them. The real experiences and questions they shared with us came from a genuine willingness to engage and a recognition that these conversations were needed.
What the students in these four schools have shown us is that information and knowledge are not that big of a problem. Nor are the tools. Nor the will to talk. What we are still building, all together regardless of the generation we come from, is a culture in which what we do online carries the same weight and the same responsibility as everything else we do. This process is ours together and begins every time we decide not to ignore what is in front of us, even when it seems like “just a screen.”
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