Fact check together, encourage them to read beyond the headline and report any harmful content Practising fact checking together helps your child be alert to misinformation. Photo: Getty Online misinformation has been identified as one of the catalysts behind the violent riots which have been taking place in cities and towns across the UK recently. Social media enables users to share unverified information with the rest of the world at just a click of a button, so parents need to warn their children about the dangers of this.
So, how can we give our children the confidence to work out what’s fact and what’s fake? The buzzwords ‘fake news’, ‘disinformation’ and ‘misinformation’ have become more prominent in the public eye over the last few years, as distrust in the media continues to grow, but what is the difference between them all? “Misinformation is false information that is spread by those who think it’s true,” says Sheena Peckham, internet safety content expert at Internet Matters. “Their intent is generally to inform, but they don’t realise what they’re sharing is false. “However, the intent behind disinformation is malicious.
It is false information that is shared to purposely mislead people. “Fake news refers to false information that is presented as fact in a news format. Online, this might look like a news site or a social media account that seems to share news stories.
” “As the use of the internet is so widespread, false informati.