The Oct. 21 study, looking at a representative sample of 1,110 teens ages 13 to 18, found that half see conspiracy theories online once a week or more, and most are not able to accurately distinguish between different kinds of news and information sources, like op-eds and news articles.
The results are part of a growing trend of both intentional (disinformation) and unintentional false information (misinformation) being spread online, leading to a rise in conspiracy theories intertwined with politics, health and science, and accompanied by the crumbling of traditional journalism models.
There's evidence, too, that information overload can increase anxiety, depression and feelings of helplessness.
Because of this changing landscape, it's crucial for students to be taught media literacy skills, said Kim Bowman, senior manager of research at the News Literacy Project and a coauthor on the study, in a news release about the report.
"These [social media] platforms are home to harmful conspiracy theories, and our results show that American teens are not exempt from being exposed to, or potentially even influenced by them," she said. "We need to do everything we can to be sure that young people know how to protect themselves from falsehoods."
But only three states currently require news literacy instruction, per Media Literacy Now and the News Literacy Project, and another six have standards but the lessons are not required. Pennsylvania falls under neither of these categories.
Peter Adams, senior vice president of research and development at the News Literacy Project and another coauthor on the study, sees that knowledge and instruction as a human right.
"If you don't provide this information, you're leaving them at the mercy of trolls and propaganda," he said. "We think we owe this to students to help them learn how to navigate [the online world] responsibly."
Although teens spend on average five hours a day on social media (per one 2023 Gallup poll), they're not necessarily better at discerning fact from fiction compared to adults.
The report found that just 18% could correctly identify a branded content article, an op-ed and a sponsored advertisement, and just 30% correctly noted the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment. When broken down by age group, older teens were no better than younger ones at these tasks.
Lack of instruction paired with hours of online scrolling may be leading to widespread distrust of the news landscape. Teens were asked about which outlets they trust — and they were three times as likely to trust TikTok over their local newspaper.
Nearly half said journalists do more harm to democracy than good and reported that news articles display a high level of bias, and are no more trustworthy than other online content creators.
Instruction needs to occur at a much greater speed and velocity, said Matt Verich, founder and CEO of The Disinformation Project, a nonprofit that helps equip teens with resources to parse out disinformation on their own. "We're falling way behind, that we're not even scratching the surface on this," he said.
The good news? There's evidence that when media literacy is taught, it works.
"We found positive associations with news literacy and healthy news habits, as well as an increase in trust of news sources," said Bowman.
Teens also overwhelmingly want media literacy to be taught in schools. Despite that 39% reported ever having received media literacy instruction, 94% said they want it. Bowman was surprised by these findings.
"I expected to find some support, but 94% was an overwhelming amount," she said. "It seems important to them, and they see the value of it in their education."
The report underscores that helping students be more engaged is worthwhile, said Adams.
Chris Coward, senior principal research scientist at the University of Washington studying misinformation and media literacy, and cofounder of the Center for an Informed Public, said he wasn't surprised to hear how widespread false information and conspiracy theories have become in teens' online worlds — but he was heartened at how many wanted media literacy to be explicitly taught.
Coward and his team think instruction is best delivered collaboratively, and not just in a classroom.
In 2020, he created Loki's Loop, an mis- and disinformation escape room that anyone can download and take part in. Players are asked to navigate between true and false information, and they solve puzzles to "get out" of the room. In one step, players might unintentionally share a deep fake video, and the game then explains where the user went wrong. Players discuss what they learned and how it relates to their own life afterward — as opposed to sitting down for more formal instruction.
"The game tries to teach that we're all vulnerable," he said. "You have to have awareness of your own susceptibility."
In addition to the escape room, which can be given to anyone ages 14 and up, Coward has also co-designed kid-appropriate activities, like Minecraft-related lessons and instruction about artificial intelligence videos.
Kids may be more aware than adults about deceptive technology because they're exposed to it more: For instance, many regularly use the app FaceTune to alter subtle face features before posting pictures to Instagram, or they swipe to add a face filter on Snapchat before sending to friends.
"In some ways, kids are more aware of technology that deceives you," said Coward.
But they also struggle with becoming paralyzed and complacent due to the sheer amount of information they face daily.
"The information environment is changing super rapidly," said Adams. "Students are seeing much more information than their parents and grandparents ever did."
And the findings about trust in news and democracy particularly concerned Adams.
"A lot of teens don't understand the role the free press plays," he said. "Teens don't just automatically know this stuff just because they use social media. These skills and habits need to be taught."
While the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington creates games for students, the News Literacy Project is writing curricula for teachers and educators to access for free. The organization said since its inception in 2008, it has worked with more than 3,500 teachers in Pennsylvania, including more than 1,000 last year alone.
And the Disinformation Project works to get kids engaged outside the classroom, in extracurricular clubs that they lead. Kids are more likely to engage with themselves than with their teachers, said Verich. The organization has partnered with school clubs for such projects as crafting a giant tree in the hallway with leaves that spell out healthy social media consumption habits.
"Teens are really interested in not being manipulated," said Verich. "But they have to understand that first. If you come to them and say, 'You should read newspapers instead of TikTok,' they don't understand what the problem is."
It's not just about dispelling specific online myths, but about providing kids tools to understand why and how mis- and disinformation manifest, said Coward.
"These are social issues, and it has to do with who is in your network," he said. "The problem isn't detection itself, but making sense of this new environment."
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