Can you trust what you see?
Not everything you see online is true, even when it looks real. Checking where information comes from, and looking for a second source, are two of the best habits you can build.
A photo or video can be edited to show something that never actually happened. Sometimes this is obvious, like a cartoon filter. Sometimes it's not obvious at all, and even a careful look isn't enough to be sure.
Why can't I always trust what I see?
Photos have been editable for a long time, but the tools for changing photos and videos have gotten much better and much easier to use. Someone can change what a photo shows, change what words appear to come out of someone's mouth in a video, or generate an image of something that never happened at all using AI.
This doesn't mean everything online is fake. Most of what you see is completely genuine. But it does mean that "I saw it online" isn't the same as "it's definitely true."
Where did this come from?
A helpful habit is asking where a piece of information actually came from. A post with no source, from an account you don't recognize, deserves more caution than a report from a news organization you already know and trust.
Look for who posted something, and whether they explain where they got it. A post that says "someone told me" or shows no original source is much shakier than one that links back to where the information first came from.
Pick something you saw online recently, a fact, a photo, or a claim. See if you can find where it originally came from. Ask a parent or guardian to help you search for it and see whether other trustworthy sources are reporting the same thing.
Why does a second source matter?
If only one account is saying something, and nobody else is reporting it, that's a reason to be cautious. If several separate, trustworthy sources are all saying the same thing, that's a much stronger sign that it's actually true.
This is exactly how real journalists check their own work before publishing a story: they look for more than one source before trusting a claim.
- Artificial intelligence
- A computer program that has learned patterns from huge numbers of examples. People call it AI for short.
Does seeing something online mean it's definitely true?
No. Photos and videos can be edited or generated to show things that never actually happened.
What's a good habit before trusting a claim you saw online?
Check where it came from, and look for whether other trustworthy sources are reporting the same thing.
Why do real journalists look for more than one source?
Because one source could be wrong or made up, but several separate, trustworthy sources agreeing is a much stronger sign something is true.
- Photos and videos can be edited or generated to show things that never happened.
- Checking where information came from is one of the best habits you can build.
- A second trustworthy source makes a claim much more believable than just one.