Is fake news dangerous for my child? A parent’s guide to digital literacy.
- Dec 18, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 17
Alexander Goldhhawk
Science Writer
To many parents today, it feels like keeping up with the world of social media is an impossible challenge.
To many parents, it feels like yesterday since social media was just for posting family holiday pics, so the idea of being influenced by fake news online was never a consideration.
In this new era of social media, many parents fear that the values and education they have instilled in their children are being corrupted.
In this article, we’ll explore the risks of social media to teens, the impact of exposure to fake news, and crucially, how to protect and prevent misinformation impacting your child.
Will my child experience fake news on social media?
In short: yes! The truth is that even if your child doesn’t search for fake news, they’ll almost certainly be exposed to it.
Source: Pixabay
To explain how and why this happens, let’s imagine a scenario where your local cinema is run by a social media platform, promising ‘a cinema experience like no other’.
You decide to let your teenage child visit, as they’re desperate to watch the next edition to their favourite comedy film series.
However, only once the comedy ends does the cinema’s uniqueness become clear. Instead of a screen filled with credits, a 5-minute teaser for a similar popular series is advertised with a timer indicating the screening will start in just 30 seconds.
Since they’ve got a good spot and the series seems intriguing, I imagine they’d stay put.
The cinema uses the same tactic again, this time presenting a viral ‘revolutionary documentary.’
Although this topic probably wouldn’t have interested your child initially, they may still decide to watch it since everything else they've seen has been widely popular and enjoyable.
Here, what they may forget to do is fully consider the legitimacy of this ‘documentary’.
Even in this hypothetical cinema, I doubt many would stay any longer in fear of needing the bathroom!
By showing popular content, regardless of its credibility, social media networks manage to keep teens glued to their screens.
A recent study found that almost 70% of youths (out of a cohort of 1850) are on social media for at least 3 hours a day, highlighting their elevated risk of encountering fake news.
While this study has certain limitations, for example, its online sampling method (which places it at risk of selection bias), it still demonstrates how much social media is consumed by the youth of today.
What is the impact of my child being exposed to fake news?
Now that we’ve seen how seamlessly your child can be exposed to fake news, the question is: how does it impact them?
To answer that, we’ll need to look closely at the structure of fake news.
Unlike legitimate sources, fake news and misinformation pieces are comprised of two crucial parts:
1. A biased viewpoint (presented confidently as fact).
2. An emotionally charged statement that acts as a red herring to distract from the lack of credible information.
A classic example? Man didn’t walk on the moon; it was all faked by the government.’
To break this down, false information is quickly followed by a statement that incites fear and panic.
By attacking core negative emotions such as fear, anger or disgust, individuals (particularly teens) may find difficulty in pausing and critically evaluating the information that’s being presented to them.
The result? An erosion of social trust. This means the trust your child has in you, their family, their friends and even their teachers is being slowly eroded.
While this certainly impedes their ability to learn and grow, it goes far beyond education, having a significant impact on their mental well-being.
How, as a parent, can I help my child cope with fake news?
As a parent, the first step is guiding your teenager through what fake news is and how to identify it.
Remember, there’s almost always a component resembling a fact and another linked with emotion. Multiple studies have shown that teens who can better identify fake news from the start are far less likely to experience a negative response, so it’s a great place to start.
Secondly, increase their awareness of the three possible responses to seeing fake news:
1. Sharing
2. Ignoring
3. Intervening
Sharing, as you may expect, is by far the most damaging. It places their online self inside an ‘echo chamber’.
To explain, imagine your teenager is alone in a large, stone chamber and they speak aloud - the only response they will hear is their own echo. Therefore, if it's fake news they’re sharing, fake news is what they will hear.
Now, while you may think ignoring may not seem too damaging, that’s not entirely true. Indeed, they may not be fully inside the same echo chamber as the one described above, but a study published in Vietnam showed that ignoring does little to prevent fake news from being shown again at a later time.
Of the three, intervening is by far the best. Intervening entails your teen being able to recognise or even suspect something as fake news and reporting it to the social media network itself.
However, many adolescents may feel unsure about reporting content. But the best thing you can do is remind them that there is no harm in reporting something. Reporting fake content benefits not only themselves but others, too.
Final tips:
Finding an online digital literacy course is a great way to build critical thinking skills for your child to spot and report fake news!
Mental health is a tricky topic, but it doesn’t have to be! The more open you can be about your emotions, the easier it is to tackle them. Remember, support = success.
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