Most students do not know how to distinguish a false news from a real one

The Internet is a vast world: there seems to be no limit to the knowledge we can find while surfing the net but, be careful, because not everything we find on the web is true or disinterested information. Knowing how to distinguish between false and real information is every time more important. However, is this a capacity of our young people?

According to the latest data, we must worry about how our children and students use the Internet: a study prepared with more than 7,000 students at Stanford University (United States) he has concluded that 82 percent of young people do not know how to distinguish between sponsored information and real news.


The study, which was published this month of November, is the most complete that has been elaborated to date on this subject. It has seen how young people judge the credibility of information based on the details they incorporate or the forum rather than the source of information.

The credibility of the information

We talk about an important issue: more and more people are informed only through what they receive on the Internet and may be 'learning' a lot of things that are a lie, something even more serious if we talk about young people who are forming your own image of the world.

According to the data of this work, more than two out of three high school students did not see any valid reason not to trust an article that it was written by a bank executive in which he argued why young adults need financial help.


In addition, almost four out of ten respondents thought, based on the headline, that a photo of withered daisies posted on a photo-sharing site was a test indisputable pollution in Fukushima, although at no time specified.

False or interested news

Missing or interested news comes from a multitude of different sources and it is essential to distinguish them: knowing what to read and where: there are places for news of joke or satire and others for information, and the distinction is essential. For this reason, more and more schools are teaching children to be safe when they choose and believe in information, as they relate in a report from The Washington Post.

In turn, and yet, more and more experts are warning of the disappearance of libraries in these schools. Those who defend the libraries (and, especially, to the booksellers) they emphasize an important teaching that these transmit: works of investigation, of being able to look for and to find the information that is required as much in the physical world as in the digital one.


The so-called 'media literacy' becomes increasingly important in an online world that grows and grows without limit, but it is a task that can not be left only to schools or institutes: parents, as in everything in the lives of children, they have a lot to say here.

Teaching children in a critical conscience Teaching children not to believe everything they find on the Internet is essential, but how? It is true that they can overcome us in practical knowledge of social networks, but no less true that the elderly have a superior real life experience. Experts recommend to accustom children to always read everything from different sources informative to create your own idea about events.

Devorah Heitner, founder of a consultancy for schools in the United States, encourages parents to encourage curiosity of their children and to help them in the search for information about their multiple doubts.

Likewise, for the little ones, the recommendation of those who know the most about the subject is always the same: that they surf the Internet on secure pages and always with the supervision and tips of an adult.

Damián Montero

Video: Real or fake news: how do you know?


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