Social media and children’s views on news in primary school

This study presents a review of research on how children in primary school understandand think about news they encounter on social media, and how social studies teaching canhelp them become more critical and careful online. The review includes studies that usedmethods such as interviews and analyses of reports from schools and educationalauthorities. The findings show that children often make quick, surface level judgmentsabout news content, influenced by factors such as algorithms, influencers, and visualpresentation, which makes it difficult for them to assess credibility and identify false ormisleading information. The results also indicate that traditional methods of teachingsource criticism in school are not always enough in today’s digital and algorithm drivenmedia environment. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating news literacy,digital competence, and an understanding of social media structures into social studiesteaching to better support children in using digital information safely and critically. Keywords: children, social media, news, fake news, digital skills, critical thinking