Scroll Smarter: News literacy across generations

April 14, 2026

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in this issue

Family Q&A | Top story | Bonus reads | Video of the month | Reader poll

How grandparents, kids can teach each other

Question: 

How can we help grandparents build news literacy and set strong examples for their grandchildren?

— Momma in the middle

Answer: 

You’re not alone in this, Momma. We’re all vulnerable to misinformation and misbelief in different ways, at different times — and we all have different relationships to information technologies as well.

But before diving in with grandparents, keep in mind a few things:

• While your kids have grown up with social media and know how to use it, they may not quite understand how the algorithms that drive it work.
• Grandparents didn’t grow up with the internet and social media and typically remember a time when news organizations served as “gatekeepers,” deciding what stories were most important and interesting for the public.
• This makes the topic of curation a good starting place — and potentially a way to have conversations about information habits together, as a family.

That last point may be a better approach than setting the expectation that grandparents will be exemplary news consumers. Make it a journey by including grandparents in conversations and activities to build news literacy skills and knowledge.

Try having a conversation with grandparents and grandkids about what kind of news and information they’re consuming and gently analyze together. Ask your family:

• How did they used to get news?
• And how do they get news today?
• How do they know if their sources are credible?

As a family, see if you can agree on information from a social media post or news source. (These one-page infographics on types of information and journalism standards may help guide a conversation.)

Each generation has different perspectives and tips they can offer. Grandkids can teach grandparents, and vice versa. You could initiate productive conversations in which each generation helps each other and bonds.

You can also focus on the characteristics of credibility as a general concept. Have conversations about what makes, say, a person credible. Credible people are honest, independent of conflicts of interest and transparent about how they know what they know. They apologize when they make an error or say something in a way that causes confusion or harm. Then apply these same characteristics to news sources. Credibility in news doesn’t mean perfection, it means a demonstrated commitment to these kinds of values.

There are activities you can try too:

• Wellness quiz: Take this quiz together to analyze different types of science and wellness claims online.
• Two Truths and AI game: Head to the News Literacy Project’s YouTube channel for the Two Truths and AI game to see if your family can spot the fake video.

Have patience with each other, keep an open dialogue and make a judgment call to pause if conversations or activities get heated.

➡️ Do you have a question for us? Share it in this form and we may answer it in a future issue. We can address questions about artificial intelligence, social media, journalism, misinformation and more in a family-oriented way.

⭐ You’ll win swag from the News Literacy Project if your question is picked! Questions may be edited or rephrased for clarity and length.

AI slop muddies young kids’ video feeds

It may seem harmless for children to watch an AI-generated cartoon on YouTube, but a pediatric expert says it’s “very risky for the developing brain.”

What to know:

🤖 AI-generated content on YouTube that is identified as educational or safe for kids sometimes contains images that defy reality, which can confuse kids in a dangerous way.

▶️ It’s quick and easy to make low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence, aka AI slop. One YouTube creator posted more than 10,000 videos in seven months — or about 50 new videos a day — including a nonsensical video labeled as educational.

👀 Even toddlers could potentially see this age-inappropriate, misleading content. In a 2025 Pew Research study, 62% of parents said their children younger than 2 watch YouTube.

What you can do:

✅ Rather than relying solely on YouTube’s labels and categories to decide what is safe and educational for kids, go with videos you’ve already vetted as appropriate for your own children. Or go retro and dig out the VHS you grew up on, maybe? At least you don’t have to worry about what the algorithm will show your child next.

🧑‍🧑‍🧒 Two platforms — Sensical and Mevee — also provide alternatives to YouTube. Sensical says its human editors evaluate videos based on age appropriateness and educational value, and Mevee says its videos are curated by people and not algorithms.

🚬 Social media’s ‘Big Tobacco’ moment? A jury in a landmark trial found Meta and Google liable for harm because of their platforms’ addictive designs. The March verdict has drawn comparisons from some to the 1990s crusade against Big Tobacco, while others argue it weakens human agency by shifting accountability away from individual users.

📚 School bans screens: Students at a Michigan elementary school were shocked when screentime was recently banned in class — but they quickly embraced the change, turning to reading physical books in the cozy comfort of beanbag chairs. 

🤖 AI friends: Teens who are lonely and less social are more attracted to AI chatbots, according to a scientist in this New York Times piece.

🌐 Wikipedia bans AI: The online encyclopedia has banned AI-generated articles, but will allow AI tools for translations and minor copy editing with human review.

📞 Back to basics: Families who aren’t in a rush to give their young children smartphones are experimenting with landline phones. One mom said she had to explain what a dial tone is to her 9-year-old daughter.

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A day in the life of a Chicago journalist

Go behind the scenes with Chicago Tribune political reporter Jake Sheridan in our latest episode of “Spill the Ink.” We follow Jake over two days of reporting, as he covers a Chicago City Council meeting, a press conference with the Chicago mayor and congressional elections.