Following on from Internet Safety Day, many teachers continue important conversations about staying safe online. While topics such as passwords, privacy and online behaviour are essential, there is another skill that is becoming just as important for our students: learning how to recognise fake or misleading information online. In a digital world filled with eye-catching headlines, edited images and AI-generated content, students need practical strategies to help them pause, question and check before they believe or share something. One of the most effective models I’ve used in the classroom for this is the SIFT model.
Image Generated using Chat GPT
Stop – Pause Before You React
The first step of the SIFT model encourages students to slow down before reacting to something they see online. Many fake or misleading posts are designed to trigger strong emotions such as shock, excitement, anger or fear. When emotions are strong, students are more likely to believe information quickly or share it without thinking. Teaching students to stop and notice their reaction helps them recognise when they need to think more carefully before deciding if something is true.
Key questions for students
How does this make me feel?
Am I about to believe or share this quickly?
Practical classroom application
Show students a dramatic headline or image and ask them to write down how it makes them feel before discussing whether it is true. This helps students understand how emotion can influence belief.
Investigate the Source – Who Is Behind This?
Once students have paused, the next step is to investigate the source of the information. This means looking beyond how professional a website, image or video appears and asking who created it. Students learn to check if the source is a real person, organisation or news outlet and whether it is known for being reliable. This step helps students understand that trustworthy information usually comes from clear and identifiable sources
Key questions for students
Who made this?
Is this a source I recognise or trust?
Practical classroom application
Provide students with two short articles or posts and ask them to identify the author or organisation behind each one. Students can highlight clues such as an “About” section, contact details or a recognisable name.
Find Other Sources – Check More Than One Place
The third step encourages students to look for the same information in other reliable places. A key idea here is that accurate information is rarely reported by just one source. Students are taught to search for the same claim using different keywords and to see if other trusted websites or news organisations are reporting it too. If no other sources mention it, this can be a warning sign.
Key questions for students
Are other reliable sources saying the same thing?
Is this the only place where this appears?
Practical classroom application
Give students a claim and ask them to search for it using different words. Students then record how many reliable sources report the same information and compare the results.
Trace It Back – Go to the Original Source
The final step asks students to trace information back to where it originally came from. Online content is often shared as screenshots, cropped images or short clips, which can remove important context or change meaning. Students learn to look for the original article, video, image or quote and to check whether it has been edited, reused or taken out of context.
When images are involved, students can use a reverse image search to see where the image first appeared. Tools such as Google Lens allow students to upload an image or scan it and find other places where the same image is used online. This can help students discover whether an image is old, unrelated to the claim being made, or originally used in a different context.
Reverse image searching can also support discussions about AI-generated images. In some cases, an image may not appear anywhere else online, which can be a sign that it was recently created using AI. While this does not automatically mean the image is fake, it gives students a reason to pause, question and look for additional evidence before believing or sharing it.
Key questions for students
Where did this information or image originally come from?
Does this image appear anywhere else online?
Practical classroom application
Provide students with an image linked to a claim and ask them to use Google Lens to perform a reverse image search. Students then identify where else the image appears online and discuss what this tells them about the reliability of the claim.
In previous generations, we were taught not to believe everything we saw on television and to question what we were being shown. Today’s students are growing up in a very different digital landscape, where information is constant, personalised and often enhanced by AI, deepfakes and edited media. In this new era, simply warning students is not enough. They need structured strategies that help them become critical thinkers. Teaching a clear approach like the SIFT model supports students in slowing down, questioning information and making informed decisions before believing or sharing content, helping them navigate the online world with confidence and responsibility.