Evaluating information sources 

Here are a couple of ways children and young people can evaluate sources: 

• Look for clues: Author (are they trustworthy?), Date (is the information still current?), Purpose (does the source inform, sell, persuade or entertain?) 

• Strategy: SIFT – Stop, Investigate source, Find better coverage, Trace claims to original context. 

Children and young people should always remember to provide sources they use. As well as helping them find reliable information, it adds credibility to their work! 

Spotting mis- and disinformation  

Children and young people should check whether any information, from any source, is reliable. While online sources, especially social media sources, are often suspected, even printed books can at least have biases.  

However, recent research has found that misinformation and disinformation are mostly about today’s socio-political matters.  

There are a host of techniques to check whether information is true but firstly children and young people need an attitude of constant vigilance. Only if they routinely suspect information they receive will they apply these techniques. 

Reliability-checking 

In addition to SIFT and Author – Date – Purpose, the following have also recently been recommended by school librarians: 

• CRAAP (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose):  https://commons.emich.edu/loexquarterly/vol31/iss3/4 

• SVC (Stop, Verify, Correct), from ​(CILIP, 2024)​: https://www.cilip.org.uk/news/679140/STOP-VERIFY-CORRECT-How-to-combat-misinformation-online-and-beyond-.htm.  

There are several other models listed on the CILIPS website here: https://www.cilips.org.uk/media-and-information-literacy-resources.  

In general, children and young people should check several sources, and where possible make sure they don’t all link back to the same original source. The gold standard reliable sources are those that have been peer-reviewed, that is checked by experts for accuracy, reliability, verifiability etc. Most academic journals are peer-reviewed, but they can be very costly to access. 

Fact-checking services 

In case it’s not possible for your students to check information, there are fact-checking services. These include BBC Verify and The Ferret.