The objective is not to provide them with a list of sources to consider reliable, but to provide them with a method. Because when faced with health information, the right reflex could be contained in a few words: “We slow down, we check, then we decide.”
Health advice may seem harmless, until it isn’t.
A message appears on a screen. It is short, convincing, accompanied by a video or an image which seems to provide proof. Perhaps he claims that a food helps prevent a disease, that a dietary supplement makes you lose weight effortlessly, or that a vaccine would be dangerous.
For a teenager, it is difficult to immediately know where the information stops and the deception begins.
This is the whole problem that Inserm intends to tackle. Young people today are exposed to content relating to
diet, sleep, physical activity, mental health, medications, vaccines and even food supplements. They encounter them on social networks, video platforms, search engines, but now also on artificial intelligence tools.
In this universe, reliable information rubs shoulders with approximations, errors and deliberately misleading content. And when it comes to health, false information does not necessarily remain virtual. It can lead to the adoption of an ineffective or dangerous practice, delay in seeking care, cause people to forgo treatment or even push them to purchase products whose effectiveness has not been demonstrated.
Faced with this risk, Inserm chose to intervene before doubt sets in.
In class, students will learn to verify rather than simply believe
On the occasion of the start of the school year, the institute is making available to teachers and education professionals its module “Fake news in healthdesigned for middle school students from 4th grade and high school students.
The device can be used on one or two hours. It includes animation support intended for teachers as well as activities allowing students to compare their first impressions with a real verification process.
In its long version, the workshop goes further: students are invited to collectively carry out a mission of
fact-checking from health information inspired by content circulating on social networks.
The idea is important. It’s not just a matter of telling teenagers, “This source is good, this one is bad.” »
Instead, Inserm wants to teach them to understand
why scientific information deserves to be considered solid. This is where the scientific approach comes into play.
Behind an assertion, what evidence?
To distinguish credible information from misleading assertion, the module familiarizes students with several stages of the scientific process: formulating a hypothesis, evaluating the strength of the evidence and understanding that not all available data has the same weight.
An isolated study is therefore not necessarily enough to establish the truth. Conversely, a set of converging results can provide greater strength to a conclusion.
This nuance is essential in a digital world where a spectacular statement can quickly take on the appearance of certainty simply because it is widely shared.
The module therefore invites young people to ask themselves a few simple questions: who is speaking? In what area does this person have expertise? What evidence is his assertion based on? Is it confirmed by other reliable sources?
These are simple reflexes, but they can change the way you watch a video, a message or a publication. And above all, they make it possible to avoid asking adolescents to blindly trust an institution. They give them the means to check for themselves.
Inserm wants to act before false information does damage
This initiative does not appear out of nowhere. For several years, Inserm has already been seeking to combat health misinformation.
- In 2018the institute created Detox Channelwhich compares the assertions circulating in the public space with the state of scientific knowledge.
- In 2025, 24 items were published in this context, for a total of 1.1 million visits and 2.2 million page views.
- Since 2022, a community of 120 to 150 scientists also participates in this process. These researchers respond to requests from the media, contribute to the production of deciphering content and raise emerging topics of disinformation.
The new kit, however, changes logic. Until now, it was mainly a matter of responding to misleading information when it was already circulating. With this tool intended for students, Inserm seeks to intervene upstreambefore the false information is integrated as truth.
It is also a way of taking note of a profound change in the way adolescents access knowledge.
Today, a health question can be answered in seconds on a social network, a search engine or artificial intelligence. But the speed of a response says nothing about its reliability.
Learning to slow down then becomes a skill in its own right.
“We slow down, we check, then we decide”
This is ultimately the principle that Inserm wishes to convey to young people: not to react immediately to health information, especially when it provokes fear, enthusiasm or indignation.
“We slow down, we check, then we decide.”
Three steps that may seem simple. But behind them lies a real education in scientific reasoning.
Because fighting fake news isn’t just about correcting errors once they’ve gone viral. It is also about giving everyone the means to recognize a fragile assertion, to identify the evidence that supports it and to understand that in science, a serious answer can sometimes be more nuanced than a spectacular message.
For adolescents, these reflexes can become particularly valuable as sources of information multiply.
The issue therefore goes far beyond the classroom.
Training readers, spectators and users of digital tools capable of verifying before believing also means giving them more control over decisions that concern their own health.
At a time when false information can circulate in seconds, learning to take a few moments to verify could be one of the most useful health reflexes to pass on.
To remember
The kit “Fake news in health” of Inserm is intended for students from 4th to 12th grade. It can be used in the classroom for one or two hours and offers activities around checking health information. In its long version, students also carry out a collective verification mission using content inspired by social networks.