Age and thinking style affect how young people evaluate online information
With current research suggesting that many young people don’t question the information they find online, a new study in the Journal of Children and Media reveals the factors that are most likely to predict they will. Miriam Metzger and her colleagues measured the awareness and skill in evaluating the credibility of online information of nearly 3000 children aged 11–18 in three distinct ways – one of which involved viewing a ‘hoax’ website. Their results confirmed that certain developmental and demographic characteristics can