Guide to equip young people to tell fact from fiction
Help young people build their critical thinking about spotting fake news online.
People create and spread fake news online by inventing stories, distorting facts, or presenting false content as real news.
Those who create fake news may be looking to get people to click on the link to promote advertising, encourage people to buy something or persuade them to support a point of view. Sometimes, news organisations make mistakes and print stories that later turn out to be untrue.
Although fake news has always existed, increasingly those creating ‘fake news’ are making it more difficult to spot. Even well-established news organisations find themselves reporting stories based on false information due to the nature of the online world.
With so much information coming from a wide range of sources, it can be hard to know which are trustworthy.
- It can lead children and young people to believe something about the world that can have a negative impact on their wellbeing
- Fake news sometimes may target minority groups and spread hate which can have real world consequences
- Seeing false or misleading information online can confuse children and make them anxious about believing something untrue.
Talk to them: Children rely more on their family than social media for their news so talk to them about what is going on. It’s also helpful to talk about how the information they see online is created so they have a better understanding of the intentions behind it.
Read: Many people share stories they don’t actually read. Encourage children to read beyond the headline and if they spot something, not to share it. Instead they should help set the record straight by reporting fake news.
Check: Share quick and easy ways to check the reliability of the information. This could be doing a search to double-check who the author is and how credible they are, seeing if the information is available on reputable sites and using good fact-checking websites to get more information.
It’s worth talking to them about spam, and the possibility that some adverts that they come across might be fake.
Get Involved: Digital literacy is about participation. Teach children to be honest, vigilant and creative digital citizens.
