IMLRF Admin (return to blog) Blog
Kids and Credibility: An Empirical Examination of Youth, Digital Media Use, and Information Credibility
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning, published by the MIT Press in collaboration with the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE), present findings from current research on how young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. The Reports result from research projects funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of its $50 million initiative in digital media and learning.
Kids and Credibility: An Empirical Examination of Youth, Digital Media Use, and Information Credibility (pdf) - the latest publication in this series - looks at how well children navigate the ocean of information that is available online. The authors Andrew Flanagin and Miriam Metzger report on a web-based survey of 2,747 children, ages 11 to 18 (and their parents) examining children's online information-seeking strategies and their beliefs about the credibility of that information.
The survey confirmed children's heavy reliance on the Internet. They are concerned about the credibility of online information, but 89 percent believe that "some" to "a lot" of it is believable; and, choosing among several options, they rate the Internet as the most believable information source for entertainment, commercial products, and schoolwork (more credible than books for papers or projects). Most have faith in information found on Wikipedia, but they also consider an article on the Web site of Encyclopaedia Britannica to be more believable than the identical article posted on Wikipedia. Other findings show that children are appropriately skeptical of trusting strangers they meet online, but not skeptical enough about entertainment and health information found online. Older kids are more rigorous in their assessment of online information than younger ones; younger children are less analytical and more likely to be fooled.
