LEHI, Utah — A special assembly held at North Point Elementary School in Lehi on Monday focused on educating children on how to be good consumers of the information they find online.
"I’ve learned not everything is true online," explained Callie, a student at the school.
Students in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades learned critical thinking skills when it comes to news and information they find online, with some of the kids even getting a chance to try it from the other side.
Local journalists, including myself, shared how they do their job and the importance of verifying their sources.
"If you have a friend who tells you the story and you think, 'Hmmm, this person never tells me the truth, maybe I should think twice about it before I share that rumor, right?," I asked the students.
This age group at the assembly will soon be teenagers themselves who, according to recent surveys, spend nearly five hours a day on platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
"It’s really important for the students to be able to know what is true, what isn’t and to sift through that," explained principal April Derr.
The school also incorporated social media safety and media literacy into their Red Ribbon Week.
Zachary, a fourth grader at North Point, shared how his parents and Google are his two main sources for information, but he's now aware to question some of the information he gets online.
"One time I was on YouTube watching this dinosaur comparison," he said. "It was like one of those things that was from Google and I needed to make sure."
SIFT, which stands for Stop, Investigate the source, Find trusted news coverage and Trace back to the original source, was an acronym the kids learned during the assembly.
Fifth grader Sashi explained how his parents limit his online presence but shared how the skills he now has taught him to be responsible when he does visit online sites.
"You should see if it’s true and see if it should be shared or not," he said.
FOX 13 News and its parent company, E.W. Scripps, are proud to be a part of National News Literacy Week which kicks off February 3 and highlights the importance of finding credible information online. To find out more, click newslit.org.
