Workshop aims to help pre-teens investigate health misinformation online

The team behind the workshop on misinformation includes Jimmy Lopez (left), Rowan Laird (right), and Dr. Evelyn Cornelissen (bottom).

Vancouver -

A group of health researchers are developing a workshop to help kids become health detectives who can navigate misinformation online.

The workshop, created by a team at the University of British Columbia Okanagan’s Southern Medical Program, comes as kids wade through the tricky waters of COVID-19 conspiracies and falsehoods on social media.

“Misinformation is so endemic these days,” said Rowan Laird, in a news release.

Laird, a student of the medical program, is creating the workshop for students aged 10 to 12 as part of his UBCO course requirements.

“Our goal is to teach students how to navigate health information online, spot misinformation and think critically about health claims," Laird said.

Dr. Evelyn Cornelissen, a clinical associate professor with the program says that as the global pandemic emerged last spring she became increasingly concerned with how health misinformation was impacting children.

“Internet connectivity and social media have fuelled the spread of health misinformation, while rotating lockdowns have increased uncertainty and reluctance to follow public health guidelines,” she said.

Laird partnered with Jimmy Lopez, a graduate research assistant with BC Children's Hospital’s Vaccine Evaluation Center, to create a virtual workshop to help kids evaluate and identify reputable sources of health information.

The workshop, titled "So You Want to be a Health Detective," was first presented to Grade 5 and 6 class in Kelowna. The session presented tips about evaluating information sources and encouraged students to think critically about the “5 Ws” – who, what, when, where, and why – as a method of spotting websites that lack current scientific data or might have ulterior motives.

Students were asked to compare web pages from the BC Centre for Disease Control and a prominent anti-vaccination organization.

“Within five minutes of studying each webpage, they were able to quickly identify the trustworthy source,” Laird said.

“I was really impressed how quickly they applied their critical thinking skills to assess the credibility of the information.”

Students were also given a pop quiz before and after the seminar so the team could get a sense of their attitudes towards misinformation, trustworthy sources and their confidence in assessing online information.

Feedback from the students showed they often turn to Google to get answers to questions they are initially embarrassed to ask a parent or a teacher.

“The internet is seen as a trial run before discussing with someone they trust,” reads the news statement.

The team is now planning on presenting the workshop to other classes in the fall.