Helping kids tell fact from opinion on the Internet
How to teach your children to avoid misinformation online
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The Internet offers tremendous resources and opportunities to learn, but it also contains a great deal of information that might be neither helpful nor reliable. Since anyone can post comments or information on the Internet, users must develop skills to think critically, to judge the accuracy of online information.
This is particularly true for kids who tend to believe that, "If it's on the Internet, it must be true." Traditionally, printed resources have had gatekeepers—such as editors, proofreaders, and fact checkers—to weed out mistakes, lies, and inaccurate information. However, the Internet, in many cases, has no safeguards to check the validity of information posted online.
Teach kids how the Internet works and let them know that anyone can establish a Web site, with no questions asked. Train your children to use a wide variety of information resources and to check, question, and verify what they see online.
Tips to help kids learn to identify misinformation
| • | Start when your children are young. Even preschool students are now using the Internet to look up information, so it's important to teach them early to distinguish fact from opinion and how to recognize bias, propaganda, and sites that stereotype. |
| • | Ask your kids about information that they find online. For example, what is the purpose of the site? To entertain? To sell? Does the site contain contact information for the author or an "About Us" section? Is the site sponsored by a certain company, a person, or is it a public conversation? Is the Internet the best place to find the information you're searching for? |
| • | Make sure your kids check the online information they collect against other sources. Refer to other Web sites or media—such as newspapers, magazines, and books—to verify the information. Encourage them to consult you, too. |
| • | Encourage your kids to use a variety of information resources, not just the Internet. Take them to the library or get a good encyclopedia on CD-ROM, such as Microsoft Encarta. This will give your children access to alternative sources of information. |
| • | Teach your kids effective techniques to find information online. This will greatly improve their ability to obtain quality information. One way to do this is to encourage your children to use a variety of search engines rather than just one. |
| • | Discuss hatred and racism with your kids. Software filters can help block some of this type of material. Your kids, however, should learn about racism and world events so they can recognize hateful content. Learn more about How to deal with hateful content on the Internet. |
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