As part of a series of posts, we examine the latest research on how young people and the wider population in the UK use the internet, and what it means for Local Authorities, schools and teachers.

Most 8-11s do not trust what they see on television (44%) and actually trust material on the internet more (59%). Older children show similar patterns of trusting the internet (61%) significantly more than the television (47%).

Rural children show an apparently greater belief in the integrity of what they find online; all of this points to children evaluating what they find on the web (maybe more than what they see on the television). Around 56% at all age groups evaluate websites in some way, mostly by asking someone else if they have visited it or taking its look, feel and up-to-dateness into account.

There is overall a greater trust of news programmes and nature programmes than, say, reality TV.

Categories: Digital Literacy, Research