As our child makes his march through adolescence, my husband and I have been increasingly concerned about a lot of things. The teens years sound hard, y'all! One of the things at the top of our list is teaching our tween how to navigate an internet that seems like it is increasingly filled with "fake news" and misinformation at every turn. So teaching tweens to avoid misinformation is paramount.
This is high on the list because our son is totally a digital kid. I mean, he's analog as well and loves few things more than being outside, shooting his bow and arrow, and coming home covered in mud. But we've always been an internet-friendly house, and he's been into using computers for a long time now.
Up until the last year or so, his computer use was primarily focused on playing games on PBS Kids and Animal Jam. It was cute, and it was also super safe. But now he's branching out, and (gulp) he's not always at home or consulting with adults before doing so.
While so far we know we can trust him to come to us if he stumbles upon outright inappropriate content, we both know that he's not nearly savvy enough to know how to find out if the stuff he's reading online is legitimate information or not. And, sadly, we've discovered that even "educational" content online is often dubious at best. Let's just say the three of us are spending a lot of time navigating the internet these days.
Here's what we're making sure we're covering with him, and how we talk about it.
1. Just because it sounds educational doesn't mean it is.
One of the stranger trends that we've encountered online is that there are so many YouTube channels that "sound" educational — but aren't at all. I think those of us who came of age in a time before online streaming associate a certain type of "documentary voice" with learning, and it turns out that a lot of YouTube channels know this and in turn use exactly that voice.
I'm not talking about channels that run content that is outright false. What has surprised me is that there are many channels out there that run content that is based in truth, but that usually leaves out one key kernel of truth that ultimately changes the story.
Example: My kid came home from a friend's house talking about this amazing video he saw on an "educational" channel about how a kid lost his vision after eating a diet of only processed fast food. I was immediately skeptical, so we watched the video together and took notes. Then we researched the story itself and found a source that backed it up: A teen in the UK did indeed lose his vision, and the teen was a super-picky eater. However, the teen also had an eating disorder:
“The boy suffers from an eating disorder called Arfid (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder). Sufferers become sensitive to the taste, texture, smell and appearance of certain types of food.”
The video my son watched left out this detail, which is a pretty crucial one that changes the story. Instead, the video focuses on how we all increasingly rely on fast food to feed ourselves, and it implies that we could all lose our vision if we keep going this way. None of it is outright false, but there are deliberate omissions that make the story more sensational, and it’s important to make sure kids (and everyone) understand that.
2. All media is designed to manipulate the person who consumes it.
I am especially passionate about this point, and that's probably because I have worked online for a really long time now. I think it's so important to understand that every bit of media we read and listen to is meant to manipulate us in some way. That doesn't mean that it's meant to manipulate in a malicious way, but it's all designed to make the person who consumes it have a reaction. I think that's generally understood, but you can understand something and still not really get it.
This has been a tough one to explain, even though I feel like it should be so easy. My kid loves to watching Ninjago, and it's absolutely designed to make kids his age feel many different ways — all positive — and to get them hooked. My favorite shows are the same way! And that's OK. I have no problem with the reboot of High Fidelity manipulating me all over the place, because it's incredible.
The reason this is such an important thing to understand is that you can't be an informed consumer if you don't realize you're being played. It's OK to not be upset by the playing, but you need to understand that, as a consumer, it's happening.
3. Finding sources is crucial.
You know how you always had to have a "Works Cited" page when you wrote a paper in school? You basically need to also have a "Works Cited" page when you're reading stuff online.
I told my son that whenever I read anything that is being reported as a fact — any news item — I always Google it and find at least two more sources that back it up. I do this for news from trusted sites (I read The Guardian primarily, and also Demoracy Now!). I do this before I share anything on Facebook. I do this all the time.
And speaking of Facebook, if a friend shares a meme that I agree with, I look it up and try to find at least a minimum of three sources that support it before I even like it. If I'm sharing it, I want even more.
And by sources, I don't mean user-edited sites like Wikipedia. Snopes is good, but I also like to find other news reports from institutions that have always been reputable (The New York Times, etc.). It doesn't take nearly as long as you might think it does, and knowing that I'm reading something that's real and that can be verified makes a huge difference to me.
4. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I feel like this is a cliché for a big reason: It's often true. We're always telling our son how easy it is for someone to write a misleading headline or throw outright false text on an image and spread it online to millions of people in mere minutes. People always want the story and rarely look for the retraction, you know? So if he finds something that sounds so cool, cooler than anything he ever thought could be cool — like "It Turns Out Luke Skywalker Didn't Die in Episode Eight and Now He's Getting His Own Trilogy" — it probably is too cool. Look it up, back it up, refer to the previous point.
5. Make sure you're providing sources they CAN trust.
Obviously, the internet is not filled with only fake news and misinformation. Also, just because someone powerful says something is fake doesn't mean it is. So one thing we're also doing with our son is making sure he has a working list of sources that he can rely on, because we've vetted them together.
For example, one of our absolute favorites for history (one of his favorite subjects) is Crash Course and Crash Course Kids. The series was started by author John Green, and it even has its own 10-part video series on how to spot misinformation and on media literacy that's just for kids and teens. The videos are easy to verify, and John Green is committed to making sure that the information this series provides is accurate and real. The channels are amazing for adults and for kids.
In addition to this, we're slowly opening up our son to sources that we trust, too. He doesn't really care about reading The Guardian right now, but he absolutely loves Amy Goodman and will watch Democracy Now! or listen to NPR any day of the week, which is pretty funny. What you read and consume will vary by family, but making sure it's legitimate is the first step toward media literacy for all of us.
