Young people aged 11 to 14 believe they are not exposed to online misinformation, so they tend to believe misleading content more, a study by the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom has concluded.
According to the university study, the absence of barriers on social networks, making it possible for anyone to publish all kinds of content without verification processes, is one of the reasons that leads to the proliferation of disinformation in the virtual world.
“This is particularly important as young people increasingly turn to social media to obtain all kinds of information, using it as a source of news and as a search engine,” reads the document.
The study found that young people, aged between 11 and 14, tend to mistakenly believe that misinformation is only about world events and hoaxes, so they consider that they are not exposed to disinformative content.
In this sense, the analysis put young people in front of false information, demonstrating that “most did not verify the information by cross-examining what they read with other news sources. Instead, they relied on their intuition or looked at what others had written in the comments section as a form of information validation.
In addition, the document warns that “disinformation has an impact not only on beliefs, but also on behaviours: for example, it affects the way people vote in elections.”
Thus, the group of researchers developed a project where they condensed resources aimed at young people, to help them develop disinformation-detecting skills in the virtual world.
The resources available online can be consulted through the following link: https://www.projectreal.co.uk/.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
