00:00In other information, 19.2 million Brazilians between the ages of 16 and 24
00:05are registered to vote in this year's presidential election. Recent studies
00:10show that they are a voter group that is especially susceptible to social media
00:15disinformation campaigns. Our correspondent Ryan Meir has more
00:19information.
00:22In Brazil, voting is mandatory for all citizens over the age of 18 and optional for 17-year-olds.
00:29With the elections only weeks away, recent polls show that the youngest segment of the electorate,
00:34which is made up of people between the ages of 16 and 24, is also Brazil's most conservative
00:40age cohort.
00:43Before I turned 23, the most important thing in my life was reading the football section
00:48of the newspaper every night. That was it. I didn't think about politics at all. The
00:53way I saw it, no government was any good. The unions were good for nothing. And, there
00:58are lots of young people who think like that today. It's not their fault. It's our fault
01:02if you are not able to explain our narrative properly to them.
01:08At a community program called Escola da Democracia on the periphery of Recife, which works to
01:14empower poor youth, primarily teenage girls, to make more knowledgeable decisions about
01:19candidates on election day. Facilitators and students alike believe that modern technology
01:24is exacerbating political apathy and disinformation among young people.
01:30One of the big challenges in Brazil for this election season is the use of artificial intelligence to
01:35create false realities. And this is widely circulating to youth through the social media
01:40apps like WhatsApp. And there is still a big lack of adequate regulation for this in Brazil.
01:49The school, which runs out of a local public library on the top of Alto da Santa Teresina Favela,
01:55works on things like explaining what the roles and responsibilities of different elected officials
02:00are and how their positions relate to their neighborhood. It also helps build skills to cross-check
02:05information on social media and identify fake news.
02:11Most people I know don't pay attention to politics and try to stay neutral.
02:16But we know being neutral usually favors one side.
02:20When I am trying to learn about candidates, I try to find out if they have the same values as
02:25I
02:25and if they will fight for my rights and the rights of everyone in my social class.
02:32In 2025, the average Brazilian person between the ages of 16 and 24 spent 6 hours and 32 minutes a
02:39day
02:39connected to the internet. Studies have shown that this amount of screen time can lead to social
02:44anxiety and isolation. The Escola da Democracia works with other community organizations in the
02:49area to try to get young people to spend more time interacting with each other.
02:55We have to recuperate our sense of the collective for young people and for the whole city of Recife.
03:00We have to work so that young people feel like they are part of something.
03:04Unfortunately, our society is making people become more and more individualistic,
03:08so this is what we work against, so that young people can feel a sense of belonging to society.
03:13So we try to rebuild connections to the neighborhood and foster collective experiences.
03:18Brazil's elections will take place on October 4th. Brian Meir, Telesur, Recife.
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