After Meta, the parent company behind Facebook and Instagram, announced it would be shifting its fact-checking mechanisms to a crowdsourcing approach, parents’ fears about how social media is shaping their children’s minds have likely grown.
A 2023 poll conducted by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan found that 67% of parents called “overuse of devices” and “screen time” one of their top concerns, and 66% of parents cited social media in general.
Whether you are concerned about TikTok, Instagram, X, formerly Twitter, or Snapchat, concerns about the young people in your life falling for social media misinformation are real. You can teach them to be less susceptible to it with these guidelines.
Look out for telltale errors and targeted content
One of the first things people should look for when deciding if something is misinformation are small errors. Grammar mistakes or misspellings are a good way to decide if something was sloppily put together. This is also true when looking out for any AI-generated content.
You should also teach kids to be wary of anything that makes them very emotional.
“Misinformation and disinformation are created to get extreme reactions out of people,” James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, told CNN.
Kids should understand what algorithms do, CNN warns, and particularly how they will show people more inaccurate and extremist content the more they engage with it.
Always double check with mainstream media sources
For parents of young children today, social media may be your kids’ first brush with any kind of news content. Whether through influencers or viral clips, that can be exciting.
However, it is important to teach your kids to find mainstream news sources they trust.
Teach your kids to “consume more news, not less,” Dr. Jingsi Christina Wu, associate professor of media studies at Hofstra University, told CNN. Watch the news with your kids or read the newspaper with them so they can better learn what type of news and information they trust.
Foster higher media literacy
Through introducing your young ones to different types of media outside of social media, you can foster media literacy in your home and surrounding environments.
The Center for Parent and Teen Communication called media literacy learning “how to effectively access, analyze, and engage with media messages.”
The Center went on to say that media literacy teaches people to “understand how to think” and to use “the power of information and communication to make a difference to yourself and others.”
Another thing to remind kids is that just because something has a lot of views does not mean it is vetted and true.
“Virality does not equal truth,” Wu told CNN. “Fake news travels faster by taking advantage of human instincts for sharing abnormal stories.”
Show empathy
Make sure the young people in your life know that you understand why they believe certain things they see on social media, even if it’s later proven to be untrue.
“It’s important to show empathy by listening to them instead of being dismissive or offering immediate fact checks,” The American Federation of Teachers advised. “It’s crucial that a student spreading bad information knows you are listening by getting them to talk about why they believe it and their other thoughts on the subject.”
It is also important to keep an open dialogue going with your kids and talk through the things they are being exposed to on a daily basis.
Wu told CNN that keeping an open dialogue “demonstrates to the kids that learning never stops and media literacy is a muscle that needs to be exercised.”
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