Misinformation and disinformation are spreading today at an alarming rate and scale on social media, making it difficult to distinguish between true and false information. Especially children are vulnerable and at risk of receiving and sharing misleading, deceptive, and untruthful information that can influence their opinions and damage their belief, trust, and participation in democracy. Therefore, it is necessary to improve children's existing competencies and strengthen their ability to decode and critically assess the truthfulness of information on social media.
The purpose of our project ‘SafeChilDe’ funded by TrygFonden is to map children’s exposure to misinformation and improve their ability to distinguish true from false information. The interdisciplinary research project comprises three parts, which together address the problem, develop a useful product, and formulate solution-oriented principles.
- First, we will examine how current legislation regulates the problem and the principles upon which the legislation is based.
- Next, we will explore how Danish school children aged 5-12 experience, react to and critically relate to misinformation on social media.
- Based on the results, we will develop an online learning game that trains children to identify and distinguish misinformation from truthful information.