Digital Misinformation / Disinformation and Children

"There is insufficient data available to researchers and policymakers to get a clear and comprehensive picture of how susceptible children are to mis/disinformation and how it affects their development, well-being and rights."

The rapid spread of mis/disinformation online affects everyone, including children, many of whom are active digital users. With their cognitive capacities still in development, children are particularly vulnerable to the risks of mis/disinformation. At the same time, they are capable of playing a role in actively countering the flow of mis/disinformation and in mitigating its adverse effects. From the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Office of Global Insight & Policy, this report examines the problem of mis/disinformation in general and for children, discusses challenges associated with countering mis/disinformation, and offers recommendations for addressing the problem.

Based on a literature review and interviews with 13 experts on issues of children and mis/disinformation, the report begins with a look at what we know about mis/disinformation. In short, misinformation is false or misleading information that is unwittingly shared, while disinformation is deliberately created and distributed with an intent to deceive or harm. The popularity of the internet, social media, and visual networks such as Instagram and TikTok has exacerbated the risks that mis/disinformation will spread to children. Even very young children or those without access to social media networks may be exposed through their interactions with peers, parents, caregivers, and educators, with mis/disinformation moving easily between online and offline contexts.

While mis/disinformation is often spread by people, algorithms are a key part of the mis/disinformation flow, as outlined in the report. These technical means of sorting posts drive personalised news feeds and curate search results, content, and friend recommendations by tracking user behaviour. Algorithms sometimes promote misleading, sensationalist, and conspiratorial content over factual information and can be key vectors in amplifying the spread of mis/disinformation.

Hot-button and divisive issues, such as immigration, gender politics and equality, and vaccination are particularly susceptible to being spread as mis/disinformation. One possible reason is that emotionally charged content, such as social media content that advances conspiracy theories, spreads more widely and more rapidly than regular content. One challenge is that conspiracy theories are difficult to debunk because contrary evidence is often reinterpreted as confirmatory evidence. Thus, a call by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be vaccinated against COVID-19 plays into theories that the organisation secretly makes money from vaccines. Manufactured "proof" of such claims causes more outrage and anger, perpetuating the cycle as people share content on social media.

There is mounting evidence of the real-world consequences of mis/disinformation - be it at the individual or societal level. For example, a 2014 study highlighted the detrimental consequences of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and their role in shaping health-related behaviours, such as reducing parental intentions to vaccinate their children. As noted above, conspiracy theories around the origin, possible treatments for, and even the existence of COVID-19 have sparked a stream of mis/disinformation online that has stoked vaccine hesitancy and rejection.

Although children can be targets and objects of mis/disinformation, they have the potential to actively counter its flow. The report points to their contributions to online fact-checking and myth-busting initiatives, such as against COVID-19 misinformation in Nepal. Another example is UNICEF Montenegro's Let's Choose What We Watch programme, which has given young people opportunities to practice their media literacy and journalism skills and so improve the quality of reporting child rights.

The report explores how policymakers, civil society, tech companies, and parents and caregivers are taking action to push back the rising tide of misinformation and disinformation. For instance, in 2020, with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter paired with fact-checking organisations to try to prevent the spread of anti-vaccination mis/disinformation. Facebook and Twitter were also active in taking down mis/disinformation before the 2020 United States presidential election. ("However, it remains to be seen whether such measures will become the norm globally....If they do, a reduction in the amount of misleading political information in particular may be a positive outcome for adolescents close to voting age who are seeking free and fair political commentary.")

Stressing there is no single, comprehensive solution to the complex issues surrounding mis/disinformation, the report offers recommendations for a collaborative, multi-pronged approach that includes various actors, such as:

• Policymakers: Devise child rights-based regulations; enlist support of technology companies, and require greater transparency, accountability and global responsibility from them around mis/disinformation and children; support media and information literacy programmes and an independent and diverse media ecosystem; and use and further support research on mis/disinformation and children.
• Technology companies: Implement self-declared policies and invest more in human and technical approaches to combat mis/disinformation that affects children; be more transparent; and prioritise meaningful connections and plurality of ideas for children.
• Parents, caregivers, and educators: Engage in children's media activities, and help develop their critical thinking (e.g., by encourage open conversations on current news events and digital life); and support media and information literacy programmes for children.
• Civil society, including academia and international organisations: Provide policy guidance to minimise mis/disinformation for children; and conduct ongoing research on the impact of mis/disinformation on children and the efficacy of counter-measures.

Thus, collectively, action is required to: protect children from the harms of mis/disinformation; build and strengthen capacities among children and adults to navigate and evaluate digital information environments; and support further research into the causes, effects, and scale of mis/disinformation targeted at children that explores questions such as:

• How does exposure to mis/disinformation affect children's social, cognitive, and emotional development and well-being over time?
• Is the influence of child peer-to-peer mis/disinformation communication different to that from official or adult sources, and what might that mean for engaging children to help reduce the spread of mis/disinformation?
• What government regulations and policies best balance children's rights to protection from harmful mis/disinformation to protect children while also maintaining their rights to freedom of expression and association and their right to access information?