Children believe everything they read on the Internet
We talk about the 'digital natives' to refer to those people who have grown up surrounded by electronic devices and, therefore, dominate them. However, knowing how to surf the Internet does not mean knowing how to do it well: sAccording to a study, children believe everything they read on the Internet.
The research, developed by the regulator of the media industry of the United Kingdom, Ofcom, ensures that in recent years the number of children who believe everything they read on Google and social networks has doubled.
British children between the ages of 8 and 15 spend twice as much time on the Internet as they did in this entertainment just a decade ago, as reflected in the study and mentions the UK newspaper. The Telegraph, which has echoed the news.
Unawareness of children over the Internet
The study warns that children spend a lot of time on the Internet and do not have enough knowledge to discern what information they read on the web is true or impartial. In particular, almost 10 percent of children believe that everything they see in social networks or applications is real, and the vast majority of them are not aware that 'bloggers' may be receiving money for the content they upload to the cloud.
Among the results of his study also highlights that almost a fifth of children between 12 and 15 years believe that the information that appears in search engines such as Google 'must be true', but only one in three is able to identify the paid content that appears on these websites.
The study has also found that the number of children who go to YouTube is increasing to find "true and accurate" information about what happens in the world. In fact, eight percent of young Internet users mention this platform to share videos as their preferred option to learn, a percentage that has increased: last year was only three percent.
Youtube contents for minors
Despite the high use of YouTube by children, the study says that only half of children between 12 and 15 years who use this platform are aware that ads are the largest source of income on the site. In addition, less than half know that bloggers in this network often receive money in exchange for mentions of products in their videos.
Other data mentioned in the study ensures that 34 percent of children between 12 and 15 years of age who use Youtube say that being online helps them to be "themselves". In this question, 35 percent of the respondents did not agree, while 31 percent were not sure if YouTube helped them to be themselves or not.
Children's online behaviors
The study of this British organization has also wanted to know what are the behaviors of minors when they are online. The authors have found that almost three-quarters of older children consider that people behave differently when they are connected.
By sex, it has been determined that 67 percent of girls see this attitude change when they are online, a percentage that is 52 percent in the case of boys.
Almost a third of the respondents were aware that people use this means of communication to launch rumors or gossip, and a quarter of them said that many people are thoughtless or ill-educated in social networks.
On the other hand, it is noteworthy that many of the children showed concern about spending too much time in front of the screens. Specifically, 10 percent of respondents said they did not like spending so much time on the Internet, and almost a third of children admitted that they spent too many hours on social networks.
Angela R. Bonachera
