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It’s not just gen Z – older adults need help spotting online misinformation too

The Conversation · 🇦🇺 public Australia · · 932 words · By Holly Barnett
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What to know about It’s not just gen Z – older adults need help spotting online misinformation too

Given the ongoing and often heated debate about banning social media for under-16s, it’s easy to assume that young people are the only group at risk of online harm.

Propaganda risk 30%
Claims checked 17
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center83%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Given the ongoing and often heated debate about banning social media for under-16s, it’s easy to assume that young people are the only group at risk of online harm.

Why it matters

Misinformation research often focuses on younger people, and multiple studies do identify younger groups, such as generation Z, as vulnerable to online deception.

Common ground

But evidence shows that older adults are just as, if not more, likely than younger generations to believe misinformation.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-gen-z-older-adults-need-help-spotting-o…

analyticsAnalysis

30%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 0%
Minor concerns. Some persuasive language detected, but largely factual.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 17 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

help Insufficient Evidence 7
schedule Pending 7
verified Verified By Reference 3
help
Claim 1: “Spot the Troll game provided a cross-protection effect, improving participants' ability to identify false news.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence found in cross-references, web search, or Wikipedia entries about the Spot the Troll game's cross-protection effect.
schedule
Claim 2: “Older adults shared more fake news during the 2016 US election compared to other age groups.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 3: “MediaWise for Seniors improved older users' ability to judge headline truthfulness.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
verified
Claim 4: “Older adults aged 65 and older shared nearly seven times more fake news links during the 2016 US election compared to younger users.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia entries about adult ADHD, education, and old age do not address fake news sharing behavior during the 2016 US election.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adult ADHD) refers to ADHD that persists into adulthood. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder, meaning impairing symptoms must have been present in child…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_attention_deficit_hypera…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Adult education is when adults gain new attitudes, knowledge, skills, or values through systematic educating activities. It includes any form of learning adults engage in beyond traditional schooling,…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_education
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People of old age are called old people, old-timers, the elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors, or older adults. Old…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_age
schedule
Claim 5: “Older adults show higher partisan bias, trusting content aligned with their political views.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 6: “Engagement with a similar course in Spain improved older users' detection of true information.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
help
Claim 7: “Older adults are just as, if not more, likely than younger generations to believe misinformation.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No relevant evidence found in cross-references, web search, or Wikipedia entries. The evidence gathered does not address misinformation belief rates among age groups.
help
Claim 8: “Playing BadNews improved misinformation detection across different age groups and cultures.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence found in cross-references, web search, or Wikipedia entries about the BadNews game's impact on misinformation detection.
verified
Claim 9: “In 2024, nine in ten people in the UK reported seeing misinformation on social media.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia entries about .uk domain, Reform UK, and UK country information are unrelated to 2024 misinformation reporting statistics.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — .uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the f…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.uk
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Reform UK, often known simply as Reform, is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It is placed on the right-wing to far-right on the political spectrum, and has been described a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_UK
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It compr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom
schedule
Claim 10: “Misinformation detection training may discourage engagement with true content.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
verified
Claim 11: “Around 15% of adults rarely or never consider if news items are true.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia entries about emerging adulthood, incest, and pedophilia are unrelated to claims about news truthfulness evaluation. No evidence supports the 15% statistic.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Emerging adulthood, early adulthood, or post-adolescence refers to a phase of the life span between late adolescence and early adulthood, as initially proposed by Jeffrey Arnett in a 2000 article from…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_adulthood_and_early_a…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Incest ( IN-sest) is sex between close relatives, such as a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes any kind of sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and some…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Pedophilia (alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although g…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia
help
Claim 12: “Older adults were less likely to believe vaccine myths after watching corrective videos from trusted experts.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence found in cross-references, web search, or Wikipedia entries about corrective videos' impact on vaccine myth belief among older adults.
help
Claim 13: “Only 3% of the population had taken a media literacy course.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence found in cross-references, web search, or Wikipedia entries about media literacy course participation rates.
help
Claim 14: “Graphics from the World Health Organization support the credibility of corrective information across age groups in the UK and Brazil.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence found in cross-references, web search, or Wikipedia entries about WHO graphics' role in corrective information credibility.
schedule
Claim 15: “In the 2016 US election, fake stories favoring Donald Trump were shared 30 million times on Facebook.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
help
Claim 16: “Older adults are more susceptible to health misinformation due to increased risk of serious illness.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence found in cross-references, web search, or Wikipedia entries about older adults' susceptibility to health misinformation.
schedule
Claim 17: “Multiple studies reported high dropout rates in misinformation training programs for older adults.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.