back to article Ofcom asks: Do kids believe anything they read on the internet?

Ofcom’s annual survey of digital literacy amongst children reveals strong support from parents for tools to limit or block net access - and some gullibility amongst children. While Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to make network filters compulsory – irritating compulsive onanists across the UK. But the evidence suggests …

  1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "In 2009 Ofcom found that one-third of children believe Google ranks its search results in order of truthfulness."

    I wish they'd rank them in order of usefulness.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge

      They do, usefulness to them.

    2. Richard 12 Silver badge

      I wish the "page must contain this" and "page must not contain that" methods still worked.

      Google became a lot less useful and a lot more frustrating when those ceased.

  2. Blank-Reg
    Boffin

    When my little person gets a little older, I'll be implementing some sort of block and time control. It is inevitable that they'll want to go online. However, the block will be one chosen and controlled by me, not some government apparatchik. They'll also be educated and supervised from as soon as I can get them to listen. My personal view is that the wider Internet is akin to the pub - an adults playground and Children should be accompanied and supervised at all times.

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      You sound like an exception to the norm: A parent taking responsibility for raising their kids!

    2. Ben Tasker

      Yep, mines now old enough to have started taking an interest in the net, so there's now filtering in place.

      Much to wifeys annoyance, she sometimes allows her tablet to be used so it's in the aggressive filtering category.

      Not at that age yet, but I'm looking forward to it becoming an arms race - it's an opportunity for littlun to start having to think and learn about how networks work.

      Harder to circumvent filtering will be enabled each time there's a break through - though theres already detection in place for various ways around the current method

    3. BillG
      Happy

      Whenever I listen to someone who insists some babble they read online is true, I remind them of this quote I read years ago on Yahoo!:

      "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet" - Winston Churchill

      1. Mark 85

        I thought it was A. Lincoln who said "If it's on the Internet, it's true!"

  3. CAPS LOCK

    How long, I wonder, will it be before the gubmint decides that...

    ... a white list of web sites in The Only Way To Protect The Children?

    1. Teiwaz

      Re: How long, I wonder, will it be before the gubmint decides that...

      The blacklist will just get longer and longer, while they continually push for (first default on, then compulsory) usage. Then they can push for an 'approved list' for 'the more concerned parent'.

      The rest of the sorry story is just a preamble to repression and control.

  4. TheProf
    Facepalm

    Wow!

    “Less than one in six 8-11s and a third of 12-15s in 2015 are able to correctly identify advertising displayed in online search results,” Ofcom’s research found.

    Wow! You'd think youngsters had no experience of the world. I mean, 8 year olds not being able to spot shady tactics? What is the world coming to?

    1. TeeCee Gold badge

      Re: Wow!

      Hardly surprising.

      I recall seeing recently some psych research reported, showing that kids see everything as "black or white". The ability to see things in shades of grey (e.g. the lesser of two evils, best result for the most people, etc) and reason through ethical dilemmas doesn't really mature until about age 25.

      This is why child soldiers are so valuable, they don't think about who the enemy is, the rights and wrongs of shooting at them and whether the value of doing so outweighs the risk to themselves, only that they are "the enemy" and must be shot at regardless.

      It's also why if you have full membership at 14 and "one member, one vote" you end up stuck with Jeremy Corbyn as leader....

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: Wow!

        > "showing that kids see everything as "black or white"

        That would be a survival trait. A good example being, to young to be able to judge which plants are edible or not, they draw up a good/bad list. I'd say the ability to mental capacity to experiment and make their own judgement calls comes some time after puberty (and probably one of the drivers behind the teen rebellion phase).

        Why the shot at Jeremy Corbyn. Like or dislike his politics, he's a refreshing breath of air compared to the plastic politicians of the last twenty five plus years, especially since the red and blue merged into the same shade of right-wing facista.

        Ethics are just a by-product of that survival mechanism

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Wow!

        > kids see everything as "black or white"

        Nah mate, you're thinking of Americans.

  5. Amorous Cowherder

    We certainly keep an eye on what our 12 year old does. Her phone and tablet are locked down, she only has a limited browser. If she wants to use YouTube or an open browser she comes downstairs and uses it on the main PC that's in the living room where everyone can see what she's doing.

    Arguments abound at least once a week, mostly along the lines of "But such and such at school has Facebook/YouTube/Instagram/Latest-Shite-Social-Network, why can't I have it?!". My wife takes the brunt of these arguments. Young Madam recently managed to install Firefox on her tablet against house rules and for that she lost her phone and tablet for 5 days. No idea what she said to her mates about why she couldn't talk to them over the mobile. She sulked off to her room and spent the spare time she gained reading real books!

    1. NotMyRealName

      Granted it was against the house rules, but what was the underlying objection to Firefox?

      1. Chris Evans

        No objection to FF itself!

        I'd expect it be either 'Installing extra software' (who knows what anti-virus, toolbars or malware etc a youngster might install unwittingly) or it might get round parental controls.

        Technically it is a criminal offence! Though I can't see any sensible parent going the nuclear route.

        We had a work experience lad who downloaded on one of our PCs at least three applications without authorisation. He was also work shy and only lasted a couple of days.

        Education and talking to your children is the key.

        Though how non savy parents will cope should be a big concern to society along side radicalisation, grooming.... and even just the persuasive lad in the year above that asks for a nude selfie. Oh to be a parent of a teenager.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And then?

      And what happens when she's 16?

      And then what happens when she's 18?

      And what about when she moves out of your house all together?

      With any luck as an intelligent individual you'll have slowly relaxed the controls and given her the knowledge she requires to safely navigate the Internet (and the world in general) unfiltered and to rely on her own judgement to avoid any serious mistakes.

      Or will you have created yet another naive sucker with no experience of reality? I truly hope not.

      Education and experience is the key. And this applies pretty much everywhere, not just online.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      how do you know she spent that extra time actually READING? We're already not so sure, and to go through a Q&A routine afterwards DOES take a lot of time! Not to mention it feels somewhat... Nazi :)

    4. Alister
      Mushroom

      ...she sulked off to her room and spent the spare time she gained reading real books!

      The Anarchist's Cookbook, for example?

      1. Paul Crawford Silver badge
        Gimp

        Or 50 Shades of Grey?

        That would be bad, I mean there are much better examples of BDSM literature for the discerning reader...

    5. Grikath

      A Downvote? For practical common sense? What's the world coming to....

  6. Your alien overlord - fear me

    "21 per cent thought their child would be able to circumvent the controls they install." - wow, how naive of parents.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Perhaps they merely reflect the gullibility of their parents."

    All children learn their world view from their parents. In turn that reflects their wider community's ethos too.

    It is interesting to read autobiographies about people's school days at a time when passing the 11+ was a route to social mobility. A common refrain is that those who went to high/grammar schools from a working class background - often found themselves alienated from their home culture. Their parents had recognised that the school would give their child better opportunities - but often had not reckoned on the wider views that would also be absorbed.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "[...] one in five (19 per cent) believe that if a search engine lists information then it must be true, and a similar proportion (22 per cent) don’t consider the veracity of results but just visit the sites they like the look of. "

    That doesn't seem any different from adults' trust in their favoured newspaper before the internet.

    “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.”

    ― Mark Twain

    There are many other good quotes about newspapers by various people:

    http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/newspapers

    What Google doesn't find for me is the hoary chestnut that compares the opinions of readers of various British newspapers. It goes something like "Express - those who think they should be running the country. Telegraph - those who are running the country. The Sun - they don't care who is running the country as long as she has big...".

    1. Allan George Dyer
      Happy

      "What Google doesn't find for me"

      Allow me to help... Google "youtube yes minister running the country" top hit:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGscoaUWW2M

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Thanks for that link. I had forgotten that Yes Minister sketch. Still as perceptive as it was way back then.

        Interestingly - googling for just the punch line about the Sun does give some relevant results.

  9. Jagged

    People want kids but don't want to be parents

    As a parent who works in IT, this compulsory net filter nonsense makes me very angry. Ultimately its because people don't want to do the job of being a parent.

    I have a teenage son and I keep track of what gets up to on the internet. I could install filters, I have a log of net traffic, but they way I monitor what he does is by physically seeing what he's up to.

    FFS people, interact with your children. Have that conversation, have a little trust and check they are up to, like a parent should.

    Don't rely on a stupid filter that be bypassed as easily as the question can be typed into a search engine.

    1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: People want kids but don't want to be parents

      I will also add that there is nothing on the internet that can harm a child (I'm not talking about things like malware - I mean information-wise) is he is taught to question things he sees and think before he acts. In this regard the 'net is way safer than real life, yet it causes a great deal more moral panic among the easily scared. A panic that is then exploited by politicians.

  10. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Sure they believe

    what they read on the internet

    The words

    Cyber Bullying

    should explain it all.

    If they didn't believe what other people are saying about them why do we get periodic cases of children taking their own lives because of it.

  11. AndrueC Silver badge
    Alert

    Less than one in six 8-11s and a third of 12-15s in 2015 are able to correctly identify advertising displayed in online search results

    We're all doomed.

    1. Old Handle

      That's easily the most disturbing part of the results. As long as you're searching for something popular, there's a very good chance the first result will be the correct one, but only if you're able to discern which is really the first result and not an ad. So this is a very important skill.

  12. Unep Eurobats
    Childcatcher

    Untrue stuffs on teh intarwebz

    Ban this filth now.

    The trouble is you're not likely to find much mainstream stuff that's blatantly untrue. What you will find is bias and unsubstantiated opinion and that's a lot harder to defend against.

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: Untrue stuffs on teh intarwebz

      Several well-known news sites with "proper" journalists have republished The Onion stories (in some cases without permission) multiple times in recent years.

  13. thomas k

    What?!

    No "I don't believe anything I read online" option?

  14. Peter2 Silver badge

    Useless filtering

    Some years ago I was asked to "look at" a school provided filtering program installed on a school provided laptop. The parents had realised that the child was bypassing the thing using the "teacher" override code that required a password. All well and good, apart from the fact that the password was hard coded in the program and easy to find via google.

    So, useless.

    A quick conversation with the parents later they acquired an OpenDNS account, I changed the DNS on their modem/router to the OpenDNS ones and we configured what categories the parents were happy with, and then had a quick and simple discussion about never giving out the local admin password to prevent DNS changes.

    I'm reliably informed the kids (and their friends when they visit and try and use the WiFi) still bitterly moan about it, so presumably they haven't figured out how to get around it, even on their tablets and iPhones.

  15. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Just the kids?

    from the report:

    > Figure 55: Childrens belief in the truthfulness in [ social media ] websites ... 28% of 12-15's think "all or most is true"

    How many people read this article and thought it was true?

  16. cortland

    I suspect

    Judging from our politics, I suspect the kids are still smarter than our politicians.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's all lies

    Journalism is dead. The free/open web is dead. Google's search results are 100% rigged.

    Everything on the internet is now "native advertising" or propaganda, cynically designed to push some narrative or other.

    1. Allan George Dyer
      Facepalm

      Re: It's all lies

      And this statement is untrue... no, wait...

  18. Fink-Nottle

    Lament for Scotland

    > Less than one in six 8-11s and a third of 12-15s in 2015 are able to correctly identify advertising displayed in online search results

    The tragedy is that when some of these muppets turn 16, they have a say in Scotland's political future.

  19. Arthur the cat Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Households with kids are in the minority

    If you look at the ONS statistics on households you find that households with dependent children are just under 30% of all households. Also, the definition of "dependent child" includes 16-18 year olds in full time education, who can no doubt acquire porn if they want to. David "where's my pig's head?" Cameron's much loved mandatory filtering "for the sake of the children" would impose controls on 70%+ of all households for no reason whatsoever.

  20. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    "Kids are stupid."

    - Ken Titus

  21. Graham Marsden
    Holmes

    "some gullibility amongst children"

    Right, but they lose that completely when they're adults, don't they?

    Oh, excuse me, I have to like and share 23 memes on Facebook which are obviously truthful and factually correct..

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm.

    I just read this on the Internet - must be true!

  23. Ken Hagan Gold badge
    Flame

    Web-sites are like survey results

    Sometimes they are true and sometimes they are false.

    When they are true, it is either because someone did their research very carefully (rare) or luck (more common). When they are false, it is sometimes because someone was unlucky and sometimes because they intended it to be wrong in that way.

    If <insert education minister here> really wanted to improve standards, the compulsory subjects would be "How to write lies nicely" (formerly English), "How to lie with statistics" (formerly maths) and "How to rig the problem so that some other mug ends up lying on your behalf" (formerly science: experimental design).

    I've arranged them in order of difficulty. The last is rather subtle but the first is (sadly) as far as you need to go before entering politics.

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