Resources for Parents - Finding and verifying information

Media Safety Tips: Tweens (10-13 years old)

Media risks

The risks that kids encounter in media fall into four categories:

Content risks, where kids are exposed to or engage with harmful content such as violence, hate, or sexualized media; 

Conduct risks that come from what kids do or how they interact with other users; 

Consumer risks related to money, advertising, and data collection; 

Digital Skills for Democracy: Assessing online information to make civic choices

In this activity, students :

• think about the importance of making sure they have trustworthy information before they make a decision on a political or electoral issue
• explore a series of scenarios designed to teach five strategies for verifying information: find the original, verify the source, check other information, read factchecking articles, and turn to places you trust 
• reflect on the impact of false and misleading information in politics

Authentication 101 – tip sheet

Did you know that almost a quarter of adults have shared a false news story, and that we’re least likely to fact-check news and other things that come to us through people we know and trust on social networks (even though for many people these are their most common sources of news)?  

Getting the Goods on Science and Health – Tip Sheet

Here are three tips to help you find good information about health and science topics.

1. Check credentials

If the source is a person, start by checking that they really exist and that they are a genuine expert on that topic. Both doctors and scientists are usually specialists, so make sure that the source has credentials in the right field. A surgeon won’t necessarily be an expert in physics, for instance, and vice versa.

Break the Fake Tip #3: Verify the source

Whether you’re looking at a website, photo, video or news story, what really matters is whether or not the people who originally created it are trustworthy. Even when it has been shared with you by someone you trust, like a friend or family member, you can’t know if they checked the facts. So it’s up to you!