Secure Online Families | Part 5: False Information

This is the 5th article in a 9-part series | Keeping our children safe is a high priority for most parents and guardians, and this increasingly includes online security.

False information can range from non-important items (e.g., who was the king in 980 CE in England) to important issues (e.g., vaccines, current events, etc.)

Risks

This topic has been discussed a lot in recent years, but it extends beyond just the news. Some repercussions of false info. include:

• Loss of trust in other people and institutions (e.g., news stations, governments, etc.)
• Creating impressions (biases) of others that may be incorrect
• This extends from minor to significant impressions
• Learning important topics incorrectly (e.g., Wikipedia, as great as it is, doesn’t always have accurate info.)

Solutions

To help our youth successfully navigate a world filled with false information, we can teach them how to:

• Constructively question information they view and come to their own conclusions
• Discern between trustworthy and untrustworthy sources
• Take some thing (like gossip) with a grain of salt
• Lastly, teach them good principles to live by so they can determine for themselves if something lines up with good values or not

The Series:

• Part 1: Introduction (Dec 18th)
• Part 2: Cyber Bullying (Dec 18th)
• Part 3: Social Media (Dec 26th)
• Part 4: Anonymity (Jan 2nd)
• Part 5: False Information (Jan 8th)
• Part 6: Violent Media (Jan 15th)
• Part 7: Sex/Pornography (Jan 22nd)
• Part 8: Comprehensive Solutions (Jan 29th)
• Part 9: Conclusion & Additional Resources (Feb 5th)

My Credentials

I work in InfoSec and have published a couple of academic articles while finishing my masters degree.

You can view all of my credentials here and here.

[This story has been adapted to article format from my site securefamilies.org]