Leia o texto para responder à questão. Misinformation is found in every element of our online lives. It ranges from fake products available to buy, fake lifestyle posts on social m

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

Misinformation is found in every element of our online lives. It ranges from fake products available to buy, fake lifestyle posts on social media accounts and fake news about health and politics. It has an impact not only on our beliefs but also our behavior. And since anyone can create and share online content, without the kind of verification processes or fact checking typical of more traditional media, misinformation has proliferated. This is particularly important as young people increasingly turn to social media for all kinds of information, using it as a source of news and as a search engine. But despite their frequent use of social media, teenagers struggle to evaluate the accuracy of the content they consume.

A research conducted in Scotland has explored what teenagers understand about misinformation online. It was found that the young people in the study tended to — wrongly — believe that misinformation was only about world events and scams. Because of this, they believed that they personally did not see a lot of misinformation. This may make them vulnerable to misinformation as they are only alert for it in these domains. Interestingly, the teens in this study saw older adults, particularly grandparents, as especially vulnerable to believing false information. On the other hand, they viewed their parents as more skilled at spotting misinformation than they themselves were.

The researchers discussed whose role it was to challenge misinformation online. The teens were reluctant to challenge it themselves. They thought it would not make a difference if they did, or they feared being victimized online or even offline. Instead, they believed that governments should stop the spread of misinformation “as they know about what wars are happening”. They also felt that platforms should take responsibility to stop the spread of misinformation to protect their reputation, so that people don’t panic about fake news.

(Yvonne Skipper. www.theconversation.com, 21.07.2025. Adaptado.)

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