Kids and fake news: Wilfrid Laurier team looks at how young minds determine credibility

A Wilfrid Laurier University team hassecured federal funding to develop guidelines to help teach children about fake news specifically, how to figure out whether a site is credible.

• Students learn to spot fake news with Google-funded school project
• How kids and teens can navigate social media in the era of fake news

"When children do a search, there is an assumption that the first few searches that come up on the internetare the most credible ones," said psychology professor Kim Roberts, who is leading the research.

"We find children almost treat the internetas if it's one unified encyclopedia and of course it's the opposite of that."

Collecting data

Through her research project, Roberts and her team will purchase a system that will track what children are doing on different websites.

They will collect data on their behaviour, dialogue and track their eye movement to see what children are paying attention to.

"We can really go moment by precise moment and match that with cognitively what they are learning at that moment," she said.

Age also plays a factor when deciding if awebsite is credible or not. The younger the child, the more support they will need, she said.

Tips to help children know credible sources

Roberts said teaching children what the markers of credibility are is important because of how critical the internet has become.

"They are using the internetat a very early age, and it's a good thing. They need to learn how to use these tools," she said.

"But if they are mixing credible information with fake information, that's not a good thing."

Getting children to think about who wrote or published the information on a website is one way to help children be able to pick out a credible websiteversus one that is not, she said.

A set of guidelines is expected in the next few years.