Just 1 in 50 kids spot fake news

JUST one in 50 children can spot ‘fake news’ stories, a major new report on literacy has found.

The National Literacy Trust found that when 2,200 pupils aged eight to 16 took a fake news quiz, only a handful were able to spot all the fabricated stories.

The made-up pieces included one about Britain re-introducing standing-only train carriages and another about the UK withdrawing from Eurovision. Both stories were posted on Twitter as April Fools’ Day jokes by legitimate news organisations.

Researchers said the high proportion of children who were duped by the stories suggested they were not being taught critical literacy skills well enough at school.

The report is the result of a yearlong parliamentary inquiry, run in partnership with Facebook and children’s newspaper First News.

It also revealed that almost half of older children – 44 per cent – get their news from social media such as Snapchat.