Teenagers and misinformation: the deception of believing you control the algorithm

BarcelonaSocial media has become the main source of information on politics and social issues for young people aged 16 to 30, according to Eurobarometer data. In Spain, 49% of respondents use social media for this purpose, a figure seven points higher than the EU average. This surpasses the percentage of young people who get their news from television (44%) or online newspapers (20%). Among these networks, the most important for those surveyed are Instagram (51%), TikTok (43%), Twitter (36%), YouTube (32%), and Facebook (11%). This prevalence of social media raises the question of whether young people—and, previously, teenagers and children—are more vulnerable to the specific types of misinformation that lurk on these platforms.

Professor Luiz Peres-Neto of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), speaking at a conference organized by the Catalan Audiovisual Council (CAC) on October 23, explained the results of a qualitative study conducted among about fifty teenagers. "An 18-year-old girl from Barcelona told me that traditional media outlets have very clear political interests. 'They're bought and paid for,' she said. She claimed to be aware of the risks of social media: disinformation, conspiracy theories, algorithms... but that she preferred it to the rigid narratives of television news programs or the political biases of the press," he recounted.

The academic, however, rejects the cliché of young people being apathetic. "Young people are interested in politics, but not in institutional politics or the kind that appears in the media. Despite prejudices, young people are interested in current affairs: feminism, climate change... but these are thematic interests. They don't buy into the news presented by the media: their agenda of interests doesn't coincide with the agenda of interests of that segment of society." According to Peres-Neto, young people maintain the illusion that they can train and control their algorithm. A 2023 Save the Children report on disinformation and hate speech in the digital environment puts this sense of control to the test. Study participants were asked if they knew how to identify fake news online. Among girls, 38.5% said they did, compared to only 12.3% who admitted they didn't. In 48.3% of cases, the answer was an ambiguous "it depends," which means that the fear of being misled is very present. In the case of boys, the percentage who answer yes jumps to 56.0%, while only 11.2% say no and 30.4% opt for "it depends." They were then asked who they would turn to to verify potentially false information online. Combining both sexes, the majority would opt for family or friends (56.8%), far more than any traditional media such as television (43.9%), online news (32.3%), print media (17.0%), or radio (10.1%).

And what about misinformation beyond traditional media? When asked whether social media and content creators are a good source of information, there is a very different response between boys and girls. While 23.4% of boys believe yes and 11.2% believe no (with the remainder responding "it depends" or "don't know/no answer"), girls are much more critical, with 15.2% considering them a poor source and only 9.4% agreeing they are.

The impact of culture wars, amplified by social media's polarization, is already showing its effects. Since 2019, the percentage of boys who answer yes to the question "Gender violence doesn't exist, it's an ideological invention" has been rising: from 11.9% that year to 20% in 2021 and 23% in 2023.

To have an impact from schools

Experts brand media literacy as the main tool for mitigating these effects. But its implementation is uneven. Some schools in Catalonia stand out for integrating this perspective into their curricula. The most notable example is IES Euclides, a high-complexity school in Pineda de Mar. Last May, it received the first CAC Awards for Outstanding Career Achievement in Promoting Media Literacy, thanks to its extensive range of elective courses covering media literacy. Taking advantage of the fact that the school offers an arts-focused baccalaureate, they have incorporated some of these subjects into their curriculum, so that currently between 30 and 40% of the approximately 500 students take a media-related course, even if they are not specifically pursuing this baccalaureate track. This perspective also permeates the core subjects.

It's not just about theory: besides looking at the media and social networks from a critical perspective, they also produce a magazine, radio programs (in collaboration with Radio Pineda) and television programs (with Radio Calella Televisió), and film documentaries.

"When there's an outreach component to the community, it really motivates them," Gemma Paricio, head of studies at the center and driving force behind this media program, explains to ARA. "The idea is to train them to be aware and critical. We want them to be not only spectators, but also active participants in this digital society," she states. This teacher explains that this year they face the challenge of maintaining their activities at a time when the use of mobile phones, which greatly facilitated filming, has been banned.

With a mobile phone since the age of 10.8

One of the most ambitious studies ever conducted on the impact of screens on children and young people is the one undertaken by UNICEF, based on surveys of 100,000 students. It examines, for example, how one in three teenagers has suffered digital violence in the context of their romantic relationships, such as the use of apps to control where and with whom a person is at any given moment, or the non-consensual checking of their mobile phone. The study also determines that 78.3% of primary school students are already registered on at least one social network, and that 43.6% are registered on three or more.

The introduction of mobile phones is a determining factor. In Spain, the average age at which people get their first mobile phone is 10.8 years old, and this has remained stable for some time. Another relevant statistic is that 79.2% of secondary school students surveyed follow some form of social media. influencer And 21.3% are convinced they can become them. In fact, 7.8% say they are already trying. Adding up the different risks of screens, UNICEF determines that 5.7% of students may have already developed problematic social media use, and this percentage is clearly more prominent among girls (7.2% versus 4%). Regarding access to pornography, 29.6% of those surveyed have viewed it at some point, with percentages ranging from 7.2% in primary school, 33.2% in secondary school, 55.7% in high school, and 62.9% in vocational training. Boys' rates are almost three times higher than girls'.