Published On: June 13th, 2018|

BBC – Judith Burns

“A few weeks ago, Chloe, 13, shared a hoax story about the alleged death of a favourite actor, Sylvester Stallone. “I thought it was real and shared it with family members. A lot of people were quite upset,” she says. When the truth emerged that Sylvester Stallone was alive and well, Chloe says she felt stupid. “I should have looked into it a bit more before posting,” she adds. Chloe is not alone, according to a report from a group of MPs which says that falling for fake news can harm children’s “wellbeing, trust in journalism and democracy itself”. The all-party parliamentary group on literacy heard evidence that fake news could make children more anxious, damage their self-esteem and skew their world view.” (more)