What are the age, education and political leanings, of those "fake news" creators?
What are the age, education and political leanings, of those conducting the study?
Another hypothesis; older people came from eras with more honest news media.
The media has grown more biased and dishonest.
Older people mistakenly might think the internet is one big honest fun thing, instead of the dishonest, deceptive, manipulative, exploitive thing it really is.