Spotting fake news and how fast it spreads
Computer ScienceDigital Safety & EthicsAges 14–15
Use it with your class: students open it from a link or a QR code, with no account needed.
Next in Digital Safety & Ethics
A news post appears on screen the way it would on social media. Students click through verification steps (source, date, author, image, data and citations, cross-checking other sources); each step reveals a finding and adds or subtracts credibility points, ending in a verdict of real or fake news. Alongside is a spread simulation: click Share to see how many people a false story reaches after just a few rounds of sharing.
Lesson: Evaluating information quality online, spotting fake news, and how to respond to misinformation
What it shows
Checking a claim before sharing it is a skill that can be practised like any other. Each news post is investigated with six lateral-reading checks: who published it, when, who wrote it, where the image really comes from, whether figures and citations can be traced, and whether independent sources agree. Each finding moves a credibility score toward a verdict. The spread model shows why speed matters: if every reader forwards a story to r people, round g reaches r^g new people, so false claims grow geometrically unless someone stops sharing.
How to use
Choose a News item and ask students to predict whether it is true before checking anything. Then press the six check buttons one by one, discussing each finding and how the credibility score changes. Press Another story to compare the fake stories with the genuine report. Finally set Each person shares with an average of and the Number of sharing rounds simulated, press Share one more round a few times, and try Stop the spread.
Parameters you can change
- News item Story 1 – “School closed for the storm” spreading in a class group, Story 2 – “Lemon water cures every illness”, Story 3 – A genuine local newspaper report
- Each person shares with an average of 1–6 people
- Number of sharing rounds simulated 2–6 rounds
- Show the spread diagram
Questions to explore
- Which checks gave the strongest evidence that the lemon-water story is unreliable?
- If each person shares with 3 people, how many new people receive the story in round 4?
- What should you do before forwarding a story from an unknown source to your class group?
