Children encounter misinformation on social media in a similar capacity as their parents. Unlike their parents, children are an exceptionally vulnerable population because their cognitive abilities and emotional regulation are still maturing, rendering them more susceptible to misinformation and falsehoods online. Yet, little is known about children's experience with misinformation as well as what their parents think of the misinformation's effect on child development. To answer these questions, we combined a qualitative survey of parents (n=87) with semi-structured interviews of both parents and children (n=12). We found that children usually encounter deep fakes, memes with political context, or celebrity/influencer rumors on social media. Children revealed they "ask Siri" whether a social media video or post is true or not before they search on Google or ask their parents about it. Parents expressed discontent that their children are impressionable to misinformation, stating that the burden falls on them to help their children develop critical thinking skills for navigating falsehoods on social media. Here, the majority of parents felt that schools should also teach these skills as well as media literacy to their children. Misinformation, according to both parents and children affects the family relationships especially with grandparents with different political views than theirs.

翻译：儿童以与家长相似的方式接触到社交媒体上的虚假信息。与家长不同的是，儿童是一个特别脆弱的群体，因为他们的认知能力和情绪调节能力仍在发育中，这使得他们更容易受到网络虚假信息和谣言的侵害。然而，目前对儿童接触虚假信息的经历，以及家长如何看待虚假信息对儿童发展的影响知之甚少。为回答这些问题，我们结合了家长定性调查（n=87）以及家长与儿童的半结构化访谈（n=12）。研究发现，儿童通常在社交媒体上遇到深度伪造内容、带有政治背景的梗图，或名人/网红谣言。儿童透露，在搜索谷歌或询问家长之前，他们会先“询问Siri”某段社交媒体视频或帖子是否真实。家长表示不满于儿童容易受虚假信息影响，并指出帮助他们培养批判性思维能力以识别社交媒体上虚假信息的责任落在自己身上。此外，大多数家长认为学校也应当教授这些技能以及媒介素养。根据家长和儿童的反馈，虚假信息会影响家庭关系，尤其是与持不同政治观点的祖辈之间的关系。