  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.
