British children need a ‘digital vaccination’ to tackle tsunami of fake news and disinformation

The recent UK riots have given the UK a glimpse of the frightening dystopia that lies in wait if we do not reverse the breakdowns we are seeing in parts of our society. There is no doubt that disinformation poured fuel on the flames. But missing from the after-the-event analysis of the causes was the widening digital divide among children and young people, which leaves disadvantaged children more vulnerable to manipulation online. Investment in analytical and digital skills must be central to our efforts to rebuild from the race riots, if we are to protect young people from disinformation and democratise the digital future.

The education secretary has pledged to help schools wage war on ‘putrid’ fake news. This is exactly the right approach. For hundreds of years, people unable to read text hit obstacles to employment and health. In the online world, digital illiteracy will create the same barriers, preventing citizens from identifying disinformation and misinformation.

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This week our ‘Child of the North’ campaign in partnership with the Centre for Young Lives launched a report which highlights the digital divide and shows how to address it. The evidence shows 42% of young people do not have access to either home broadband or a computer. But the education system is not equipped to upskill these young people. Participation in IT at GCSE is declining rapidly, and many children are having to upskill themselves but many lack the resources they need.

Teaching digital skills in school will help protect the next generation. By administering a ‘digital vaccination’ of learning and skills to protect children from fake news and online harms, we can help to ensure our young people have a healthy future. Digitally upskilling children will also provide a rocket boost to our economy, helping the education secretary deliver Labour’s Manifesto promise of economic growth. Amazon, Meta, and Google have shown that the jobs of the future will be based in the digital world and will require digital skills. The UK has an opportunity to become a global leader with a well-educated workforce able to take advantage of the good aspects of the digital world and be protected from its harm.

The question is not whether we should do this but how we make this happen. The Regional Universities in the North of England are working together to gather the evidence needed by the new government to address the root problems sitting behind the recent unrest. Our report provides concrete recommendations on how we give all children the digital skills they desperately require. This report is one of a series of 12 being launched over 2024 to provide a roadmap for the new government on how we move towards a healthy vibrant country that all children can enjoy.

The report calls on universities to fulfil their civic duties in this space. A good start would be equipping our undergraduate population with core digital skills, who in turn can help to upskill school children. In Bradford, this has started to happen. Our Code Place team are working with Raspberry Pi to deliver computer coding clubs in our most disadvantaged areas. This programme shows that we need to understand how poverty, ethnicity and gender intersect to create barriers to digital literacy. Code Place has shown that understanding these issues allows us to work with the children most in need. These are the same children who are at greater risk of being drawn into the type of violence we saw on our streets.

The riots have lifted the rock on the hatred that is too easily whipped up online in the absence of robust regulation of social media use. The most effective route to stop the spread of the digital disease is to educate our children and let them grab back the power that is accumulating in the hands of a few tech CEOs.

Why focus on children and young people? This is the generation who have grown up in a digital world but are too often treated as commodities by the businesses that seek to exploit them for profit. We need to give this generation the tools they need to democratise the digital world and rebuild our country so that it works for everyone.

The education secretary’s vision is spot on. But we will need everyone throughout the UK to play their role in building a better future. This will need the designers of platforms and content to commit to responsible design. It will need curriculum reform and the upskilling of teachers. We managed to turn the tide on the Covid-19 pandemic by using the power of science to create a vaccination that could protect us. We need to exert the same energy in developing our ‘digital vaccine’ and helping young people position the UK at the vanguard of the digital revolution that is transforming the global economy.

Professor Mark Mon Williams is Centre for Young Lives and Child of The North report series editor and chair in cognitive psychology, University of Leeds, and professor of psychology at Bradford Institute of Health Research.

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