Untrue, unchecked, unstoppable: what schools can do about online rumours
This is a practical guide for UK teachers and form tutors on responding when a student repeats a conspiracy theory, an extremist talking point, or a piece of viral misinformation they picked up online.
It can happen sometimes where a student stating something false as if it's an obvious fact, and most teachers have seconds to decide how to respond.
Why this is happening more often
The old assumption was that young people find information the way adults were taught to, by searching for it, then checking it. That's not what's happening.
Many teenagers aren't typing questions into Google and weighing up sources. They're scrolling, and what reaches them is whatever the algorithm decides to show next.
Nobody is constantly fact checking a video before it lands in front of a fourteen year old. The algorithm isn't neutral either, it's built to keep them watching, which tends to reward whatever is most emotionally charged, not whatever is most accurate.
Why "just fact-check it" doesn't work
Most existing online safety lessons still teach the search era playbook: check the URL, look for a .gov or .org, compare a few sources. That advice assumes a student is actively searching for something and pausing to evaluate it.
It doesn't help at all when the content simply arrives, unprompted, from an algorithm, delivered by a confident, likeable creator rather than a website.
Telling a student to "check their sources" on a video that autoplayed into their feed misunderstands how they encountered it in the first place.
A 2-minute activity you can run today
Rather than a longer lesson, one of the simplest ways to open this conversation is a two minute whiteboard activity called Search vs Scroll.
Draw a line down the middle of the board, label one side "Search" and the other "Scroll", then walk through a real headline or rumour on each side, how would a student check it the old way, and how would it actually reach them today. It takes no preparation and works well as a form time starter.
[Try the free Search vs Scroll whiteboard activity →]
What to say in the moment
The instinct when a student repeats something extreme is often to correct them immediately and move on. That tends to make students defensive and shuts the conversation down rather than opening it up. A few things that work better:
- Ask where they saw it, rather than whether it's true. This gets them talking about the source, not defending the claim itself.
- Separate the person from the claim. "That's a common thing going around" lands very differently to "that's wrong."
- Ask what would change their mind, rather than telling them what to think. It shifts the conversation from a fact check to a thinking skill.
Building this into an ongoing approach, not a one-off
A single whiteboard activity opens the door, but one lesson won't change how a class navigates the content that reaches them every day.
This needs to sit inside an ongoing, structured approach across the school, one that gives every member of staff the same grounding and the same language to use, rather than leaving individual teachers to handle it however they can in the moment.
Teaching kids who scroll requires new skills. Check out our Be Internet Citizens: Self-Guided Training
Frequently asked questions
What should a teacher do if a student repeats a conspiracy theory in class?
Ask where they saw it rather than whether it's true, and treat it as a chance to talk about how the content reached them, not just whether it's accurate.
Why can more be done to increase fact-checking?
Because as pupils spend more and more time in algorithm-driven feeds, there's real value in extending those foundations with checks that work when information arrives unprompted, not just when it's actively searched for.
How can schools teach media literacy without shutting down conversation?
By focusing on where information came from and how to evaluate it, rather than simply telling students they're wrong, which tends to make them defensive.