From fake birds to Andrew Tate: How one group is tackling conspiracy theories in schools

The world of misinformation is full of apocalyptic sounding words and stodgy concepts. Tech CEOs are turning away from fact-checking and fanning the flames of political discord. AI profiles are being added to social networks not by scammers but the companies themselves. Lies fuel riots. For school children, however, it can all begin with something much funnier: the idea that birds aren’t real.

“If you ask young people to explore different kinds of conspiracy theories, they’ve come across so many, and they’ve got so many examples of them, and have seen hours of evidence,” says Amanda Gurruchaga, head of programmes with Shout Out UK. “I’ve had so many people tell me mermaids exist because they’ve seen so much footage around that. There’s so many children who are very active on YouTube and there’s so much material around conspiracy theories.”

As Labour plans to expand voting to 16-year-olds – although the manifesto pledge failed to turn into a bill in the government’s first King’s Speech – it’s teaching these young people about conspiracy theories which can be a gateway to learning about proper political media literacy.

The stakes are high. Not only are the lies at the heart of misinformation corrosive, the onslaught of slop can wear people down. “There is this risk of people switching off and not wanting to engage at all,” says Gurruchaga. “People just switch off with trying to find truth any more, because they’re being bombarded by fake things.”

What they want is to make sure children are taught media literacy in school. To that end, Shout Out UK has created an all-party parliamentary group on political and media literacy, hoping to get MPs to grasp the importance of the task ahead. 

But bringing this into the classroom can be difficult, with just 1% of teachers feeling prepared to teach about political literacy. “A lot of the time, teachers aren’t necessarily sure how to navigate impartial conversations,” says Gurruchaga. “We find when we go into schools, teachers are grateful to have a bit of a trusted source of impartiality.”

Conspiracy theories are not all mermaids and implausible bird-drones. A third of the UK believes the cost of living crisis is manufactured by the government to control the public, while a quarter believes Covid-19 was a hoax, a 2023 survey found.

Extreme ideologies find themselves swept in alongside the flights of fancy. Gen Z men and boys are more likely than boomers to believe feminism does more harm than good, and the leader of the National Education Union has called for a national inquiry into the rise of misogyny among male pupils. Police warn this “national emergency” is down to online influencers.

“When we look at different extreme ideologies in schools, the one pushback we have from young people is the inclusion of Andrew Tate in our slides. That’s the only extremist ideology we get any pushback on, often from young men,” says Gurruchaga.

It is easier than ever to create realistic information – with commercial AI tools meaning anybody can dabble. Emotionally rousing content encourages enraged audiences to share it further. Part of Shout Out’s work involves asking students to ask why somebody might want to spark these feelings.

Social media has become a dominant force in how Brits consume news, with 52% of adults using it as a news source, rising to 82% of 16-24-year-olds, a 2024 Ofcom report found. Gurruchaga believes the medium presents an under-discussed challenge: as we sit on our sofas, idly scrolling or watching YouTubers, we are passive consumers and often on our own. Here, the conspiracy theories can take root.

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