Parental tips for helping your teens stay clear of fake news online

Perhaps the most valuable contribution from the 20th century to modern society has been the internet. We live in an unprecedented age of technology and social connectedness that makes contacting people from around the world as simple as commenting on a social media thread or clicking send on an email.

The internet allows us to perform an abundance of exceptional tasks from creating videos of our pets to designing elaborate artistic posts, and the ability to share those posts across multiple platforms that reach thousands of viewers. 

And while this seemingly unlimited level of access makes it easy for us to connect with old friends and the world at large, so too exists an ominous flip side to all of this incredible innovation - Fake News and the spread of misinformation.

How do we fall for fake news?

While the internet evolves, so does the way in which we engage with it. One of the most important aspects of distributing information to large audiences is to make it as exaggerated and as clickbaity as possible. The desire for increased engagement persuades content creators to up their game when developing content which sometimes comes at the expense of telling the truth.

One thing that separates traditional news from online publication is the level of scrutiny it goes through. Fact-checking sources, journalistic integrity, accountability, and credibility is what safeguards most ethical media watchdogs from falling down this rabbit hole. Whereas online, site curation is at the discretion of the page owner so truly anything goes. 

Satirical news sites like The Onion have been around since the dawn of My Space and often post overly exaggerated puff pieces that are written with the intention of being obviously fake.  But as we've started to learn, the meaning of satire and even sarcasm is often lost in written form and thus reduces the ability to adequately gauge tone.

That being said, it's no surprise that more malicious content sites have absolutely no trouble at all producing hack pieces with cherry-picked data that filters into the general public's feed and is quickly hailed as gospel by partisan thought leaders with hundreds of thousands of loyal followers. The more sensational something is, the better it performs and the more eyeballs it gets on it. 

The flames of political polarisation and misinformation fanned by social media influencers play into each individual's level of personal confirmation bias. Thereby creating the perfect storm for communication breakdown and the rise of "Alternative Facts". A term coined by Donald Trump's senior political advisor and 2016 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway.

Curating your child's feed

While we can expect adults and tech-savvy individuals to understand the various pros and cons of being online, it's almost impossible to expect the same level of curation from our teens and younger children.

According to Rachana Desai, a Postdoctoral research fellow at WITS University, the key to conducting this process the right way boils down to parenting strategies and adopting what she terms as a "blended approach."

She explains that the best approach involves a type of birds and the bees conversation, but in this regard, about the dangers of the internet. The younger your child is the more vulnerable they are, as such, monitoring what your child is doing online is also key. The fact is children are extremely resourceful. The newer generations are growing up with smartphones as early as the age of six, and are quite capable of learning how to access the internet on their own.

"Teaching your children to develop critical thinking skills is the best-known antidote to the spread of fake news online", Desai adds. "Interesting perspectives, ideas, and strategies can be found on the net that suggest how to develop the skills required of us and our children to judge the credibility of information."

Should schools be teaching these methods?

In a recent interview with the spokesperson for the Education Minister, Kerry Mauchline, a point was made that the Department of Education is fully aware of the effects of spreading fake news and are including lessons in Life Orientation classes from grade 9 - 11 on the topic.

"The Western Cape Department of Education recognises the dangers posed by fake news and misinformation," Explains Mauchline, "and thus included the topic in the Online Safety Curriculum developed with the help of Google."

The initial program was piloted in 2019 with the stated goal of teaching learners about the fundamentals of digital and online safety. Both learners and teachers have given enough positive feedback for the program to be fully implemented within school curriculums countrywide.

Fact-checking tools

As mentioned before, there are various approved online tools that make parsing fact from fiction a little easier for parents and guardians still trying to figure it out for themselves.

Common fact-checking tools like Snopes have been around for ages with a team of dedicated writers and ex-journalists who go out of their way to source the origins of popular online claims. But with the advent of Fake News, in particular, being able to spot the red flags in news articles requires an extra layer of understanding.

TeachingKidsNews.com has excellent resources that teach both parents and children how to sift through publications and figure out whether or not they are opinion pieces or news stories and how to spot bias.

Other sites like Commonsensemedia.org are great for adults and teens and have a comprehensive list of red flags to look out for when reading news. They offer pointers on how to spot fake URLs, low-quality articles and clickbait.

Finally, the BBC keeps an updated page on their website that tackles various fake news myths that are currently circulating in the online space and provides tips on how to spot and avoid them.

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