A NEW report has revealed that only two per cent of children and young people in the UK have the critical literacy skills to tell if a news story is real or fake, according to a new survey.

The poll was carried out by the National Literacy Trust and has been published in a report from Parliament’s Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills in Schools.

It is run by the National Literacy Trust and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy, in partnership with Facebook, First News and The Day, and over the past year has gathered evidence of the impact of fake news on children and young people and the skills they need to spot it.

In the report, it revealed fake news is creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty among young people.

Half of children are worried about not being able to spot fake news, and 60 per cent of teachers believe fake news is harming children’s well-being, by increasing levels of anxiety, damaging self-esteem and skewing their world view.

Fake news online has made 60 per cent of children trust the news less. Almost 44 per cent of older children get their news from websites and social media, but only a quarter of these children actually trust these news sources.

Regulated news sources, such as newspapers, television and radio remain the most trusted sources of news for young people.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, said: “The way young people experience news is changing rapidly.

“This transformation, which has been driven in particular by the rise of digital and social media, has given young people exciting new opportunities to become creators, curators and communicators of news – not just consumers of it.

“However, with these new opportunities come new threats. We have uncovered a dangerous lack in the literacy skills that children and young people require to navigate our digital world and identify fake news.

“If we don’t take urgent action to bring the teaching of critical literacy skills into the 21st century and to engage children actively with news, we risk damaging young people’s democratic futures, along with the well-being of an entire generation.”

Lucy Powell MP, chair of the APPG on Literacy, added: “Many children told us that they lack the literacy skills needed to identify fake news.

“This is causing them to mistake false news for fact, become anxious as they believe misleading stories, and risk exposure to malign agendas.

“The digital landscape is evolving at a tremendous rate but the literacy skills children need to thrive in this world are not keeping pace.

“With the serious risk this poses to democratic engagement, it is with great urgency that we call for increased support from the Government and media organisations to enable children to acquire the critical literacy skills they need to actively engage with today’s plethora of news sources and to thrive in this digital age.”

More than half of teachers said the National Curriculum doesn’t equip children with the literacy skills they need to spot fake news, and more than a third said the critical literacy skills taught in school are not transferable to the real world.

The Commission has created a Children’s Charter on Fake News, which covers five areas of change designed to give young people the skills and knowledge to confidently navigate, analyse and assess whether news they see is real or fake.