‘The fight against online conspiracy theories starts in schools’

Conspiracy theories are too often treated as if they are confined to some distant corner of the internet. But new research shows this content is proliferating online and spilling into the real world. Schools are now on the frontline of the battle against conspiracy belief, misinformation and disinformation.

Recent research by the Pears Foundation’s Commission into Countering Online Conspiracies in Schools found that the proportion of pupils who say this is a problem in their school has risen by a third in a single year.

And what once felt exceptional now feels routine, with 81% of teachers saying a pupil has brought a conspiracy theory to them. I have seen this first hand on school visits myself, when pupils have sometimes asked questions based on a conspiracy they have encountered online. Schools are increasingly dealing with pupils repeating false claims, extremist narratives or half-understood online myths not as a rare shock, but as part of the everyday backdrop to school life. 

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Generative AI is also having an impact. With fabricated images, audio and video easier to produce and harder to identify, the problem is only becoming more complex. When asked if they had seen deepfake content in the past month, 39% said they had. The Education Committee is currently considering written evidence on the very issue of AI and its intersection with education in our latest inquiry. 

This is not a niche problem and nor should it be confined to discussions about how to use the internet. It is a safeguarding issue first and foremost. That is why it is so welcome that at the start of the school year the Department for Education updated its Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance – the safeguarding bible – to recognise conspiracy belief, misinformation and disinformation as part of the safeguarding challenge schools now face.

Young people repeatedly exposed to harmful conspiracy content are not just being misinformed. They can be drawn into fear, distrust and prejudice. The distance between something seen online and something that shapes how they see other people or public institutions can be dangerously short.

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It matters too because this challenge does not fall evenly. A polluted information environment is hardest to navigate for children who are already vulnerable – whether because of disadvantage, low confidence, weak literacy, isolation or unmet additional needs. If we are serious about opportunity and fairness, we cannot ignore the fact that some young people are far less equipped than others to interrogate what they are seeing.

And it matters because schools are being asked to carry an enormous burden. Teachers are expected to respond to highly charged, politically sensitive material in real time, often without enough training, clarity or institutional backing. Many are doing extraordinary work. But we should not pretend that a passing reference in guidance, or a vague instruction to promote critical thinking, is a sufficient answer.

For media literacy to become a core skill, it cannot sit at the margins. It has to run through the curriculum, backed by the training and resources schools need. The Government is right to be moving in that direction through curriculum reform and a stronger focus on primary schools. And it is welcome that the Centre for Digital Information Literacy in Schools is helping turn that into practical support for teachers. Because by the time conspiracy content is being discussed openly in secondary schools, much of the groundwork has already been laid. We need to start earlier, helping children build habits of curiosity, evidence and judgement before online falsehoods become harder to unpick.

And it means widening our lens beyond the school gates. Parents matter here. So do youth workers, community organisations and the platforms themselves. Schools cannot be expected to solve, on their own, a wider social problem that is being accelerated elsewhere. The answer has to be a whole-community response, with the government helping to coordinate it rather than assuming schools can simply absorb yet another complex challenge.

The Government is taking the right steps. But if this is treated as a passing concern rather than a long-term challenge, schools will be left to carry the burden alone. They need ongoing support, and they need it now.

For Labour, this should matter deeply. Our argument has never been that education is just about what happens in an exam hall. It is about whether young people are equipped to thrive as citizens, workers and members of their communities. In an age of algorithmic distortion, synthetic content and collapsing trust, that responsibility is more important than ever.

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