Labour is planning to teach children how to spot extremist content - and Nigel Farage is raising the alarm

An example could include pupils analyzing newspaper articles in a way to help differentiate fabricated stories from factual reporting.

In computer lessons, students could also be taught how to spot fake news websites and maths lessons could include analysing statistics in context.

Keir Starmer poses the biggest threat to free speech we’ve seen in our history. pic.twitter.com/AB9cdiQtue

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) August 11, 2024

Leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage has hit out at the proposal warning it could set a narrative for future generations that is "fundamentally undemocratic."

Farage said: "There is a proposal today that from the age of five years old, our kids in schools should be taught to spot extremism, to spot fake news and misinformation, and to use their powers of critical thinking to work out what's true and what's not.

"Now, by the way, I believe in critical thinking. However, if the parameters that are set to say to every kid: 'If you read a post that questions net zero and global warming, it will be extreme content and a lie. If you read a post that even dares to question levels of immigration, legal or illegal, into Britain, that's extremist.' Then you set a narrative for a future generation that is fundamentally undemocratic.

"So I am very worried that the instincts of a left-wing Labour Party are to use this crisis to take away our liberties and our free speech."

Political commentator Matt Goodwin also waded in on the debate of children being given lessons on misinformation and how how to spot fake news.

Goodwin said: "We’ve also been told this week that our children, remarkably, will now be given lessons in how to identify “misinformation”, “spot extremist content”, and “fake news”.

"Enter the politically-biased teacher presenting everything from Brexit to opposing the small boats as “misinformation” and “extremist content”.

"What’s happening, in other words, is that Keir Starmer and Labour, who don’t forget worked overtime to try and overturn the democratic vote for Brexit, are about to use their enormous majority in the House of Commons to make sweeping changes that will undermine our freedoms, suppress our voice, and weaken our democracy."

Speaking on the proposal, Goodwin asked who will determine what fake news and misinformation is and who will determine what is deemed "harmful."

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Goodwin added: "Who, for that matter, will decide what our children are taught about “misinformation” and “fake news”? And why are we even clamping down on “legal but harmful” content in the first place?

"Personally, I suspect all this is just the start of a much bigger plan to shut down debate about issues the elite class does not want to discuss, or issues on which it holds very different views to those that are held by much of the country."

Dame Andrea Jenkyns said she was concerned that new measures to teach children about ‘fake news’ would stifle free speech.

She told GB News: “As usual, the left are trying to indoctrinate our children. But what I also think is their attack on private schools is really a plan to push more people into the state school sector so they control the narrative.

“Because one thing about the private schools is that they can, to a certain degree, control what they're taught. And I think they want to homogenise all children to be cardboard cutouts of Keir Starmer.

“The last nearly a decade that I've been an MP and visiting schools, you started seeing things change, where the civil servants were really getting a grip on things like this. And over the last three or four years, most of the libraries in schools were loaded up with BLM and Greta books.

“But it's now going to get far worse. I've got a seven year old and I want to bring him up to value freedom, to actually challenge a narrative, just like his mum does, to not accept the status quo and what you're taught in schools.

“And I just think it's getting ridiculous. This is clearly part of their plan. And I think it's going to get worse, unfortunately.

“I think that all children have got to be taught about searching responsibly and not taking things on face value, and it's the same with what you taught in schools.

“My parents brought me up to challenge narratives and be outspoken and find things out for yourself, within levels of boundaries. But when I was the Education Minister for that short four and a half months, I saw with my own eyes what it was like in the civil service and the pushback I got.

“I was tasked with bringing the Freedom of Speech bill in universities, through Parliament, and I wanted to meet J K Rowling and people like this; lecturers who lost their jobs, who had been no-platformed. Our education outlets really should be thriving with free speech.

“I used to teach in schools myself but it comes from the top of the civil service, what they push out there. If we look back at some of the ministers that we've had over the years, our longest serving schools minister, he was really pushing the whole trans identity thing.

“I don't care what people do as an adult, but what they are taught in school matters to me. And he was pushing that in the coalition. I want to see ministers who will challenge things, but that ain't going to happen under a Labour government.”

Misinformation spread on social media about the background and religion of the suspect in the stabbing of three girls in Southport on July 29, which has been blamed for the subsequent rioting across parts of the UK.

Phillipson, the Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, said: “It’s more important than ever that we give young people the knowledge and skills to be able to challenge what they see online.

“That’s why our curriculum review will develop plans to embed critical skills in lessons to arm our children against the disinformation, fake news and putrid conspiracy theories awash on social media. Our renewed curriculum will always put high and rising standards in core subjects – that’s non-negotiable.

“But alongside this we will create a broad, knowledge-rich curriculum that widens access to cultural subjects and gives pupils the knowledge and skills they need to thrive at work and throughout life.”