The internet is now almost certainly the greatest source of information for people living in the UK today. The amount of information available to us at the click of a mouse when making these decisions can be both liberating and asphyxiating. Although there are more e-books, trustworthy journalism, niche expertise and accurate facts and figures at our fingertips than ever before, there are equally unprecedented amounts of mistakes, half-truths, mistruths, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation and general nonsense. 

Making sense of all this – knowing how to discriminate the good, reliable, trustworthy or useful information from the bad – is therefore of tremendous importance. The ability to make these difficult judgments matters to everyone but especially young people, for whom the internet is a more important medium than any other group.

Demos is undertaking a research project which assesses the ability young people are careful, discerning users of the internet. We are exploring the ability of young people to find and critically evaluate on-line information.  This is based on an extensive review of literature and a survey of teachers.

This research paper will be released later this year.

For more information contact Jamie Bartlett or Carl Miller