Ben Shapiro

Censoring information from kids can backfire. Teaching them to evaluate sources and biases can keep them from being misled by misinformation.

As a family we explored and revealed that each of us had been misled at some point by the things we saw online, he outright rejected the content creators he had previously admired. By allowing him to view those bad ideas, while maintaining his trust, we were able to guide him through the examination and rejection of those bad ideas. In turn, he was able to pull at least one of his friends out of the same rabbit hole. While I had been aware that he had been flirting with some nefarious ideology, I was blissfully unaware of just how close he had come to living the rest of his life in our basement as an internet troll. At that point, he was still unaware of the algorithms that were pushing him down the alt-right rabbit hole. When he learned about how the online algorithms manipulated the content he viewed, he felt duped. As a typical adolescent, he was concerned about his appearance, his social status, and fitting in. When he said the Federalist, we both sort of freaked out. When I became a mother, I was inclined to raise my son in the same way. So I approached the conversation gently but firmly and informed him of the misleading way the information had been presented. We asked where he had read the article. I have been a fan of the First Amendment for my entire adult life.