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RumorGuard
By News Literacy Project (nonprofit). Visit RumorGuard
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
RumorGuard is a free fact-check site from the News Literacy Project. Each post takes a viral photo, video or claim and rates it against five factors: authenticity, source, evidence, context and reasoning, with a short explanation and links. Many recent posts cover AI-generated images and videos. Teens and adults read it to learn how to check what they see online, and it links to the group's free Checkology news-literacy lessons. There is no account or app.
Our take: A useful free habit-builder for teens and parents learning to spot fakes together; younger children should use it with an adult.
Checked in a browser
A browser check on 2026-10-25: what loads, the ads and trackers we saw, and what a child meets first. Not a hands-on test.
| Child safety: 4 out of 5 | No ads shown and no chat; an email-alerts pop-up and share buttons; the fact-checks cover real misinformation topics (elections, AI fakes) suited to teens. |
|---|---|
| Data: 2 out of 5 | Google's ad and conversion tags (doubleclick, googleadservices) plus Facebook and LinkedIn pixels loaded before consent, alongside Google Analytics; these are tracking tags and no ad was shown. |
| Ease: 3 out of 5 | Readable cards for teens, but a 'Subscribe now' pop-up covers the lower part of the screen. |
| Cost honesty: 5 out of 5 | Free; no upsell seen. |
What we found
- 18 third-party hosts on 12 sites
- 2 Google ad hosts (ad.doubleclick.net, googleadservices) and 4 tracking hosts from Facebook and LinkedIn
- No ad frames; 13 cookies set, one from linkedin.com
- A 'Push back against misinformation with RumorGuard email alerts' pop-up appeared on the first screen
From the test: Useful, ad-free fact-checks for teens, though the page loads Google, Facebook and LinkedIn marketing pixels on the first visit.
| Ages it suits | teens and adults (about 13+) |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | RumorGuard's own pages show no terms. The News Literacy Project's privacy policy says its sites are not intended for children under 18, except students a teacher invites to its Checkology classroom; its Terms of Use page says coming soon. (terms) |
| Price | Free. Free (Oct 2026). |
| Works on | Web |
| Account | No account needed |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | No AI features; it explains and debunks AI-generated fakes. |
What's good
- Free with no account or ads
- Teaches a repeatable five-part check
- Timely posts on AI fakes
- From a nonpartisan nonprofit
Watch for
- Policy says sites are not for under-18s
- Covers only rumors it picks
- Some examples involve upsetting news
Data and privacy
The News Literacy Project's privacy policy covers its websites and says it uses Google Analytics cookies but does not let Google use or share its analytics data. No account is needed to read RumorGuard. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
The maker's own claims only; no independent study of RumorGuard was found.
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Where these facts come from
- https://www.rumorguard.org/
- https://newslit.org/
- https://newslit.org/privacy-policy/
- https://newslit.org/terms-of-use/
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.