How do adolescents identify online misinformation?

With online misinformation becoming an increasingly pressing issue, being able to correctly identify fake news is becoming an important skill for kids to develop early. Though tools like fact-checkers can help combat the problem, misinformation still manages to slip through the cracks.

Despite growing up with the internet, and often being more adept in online spaces online than their parents, young people don't always possess strong digital literacy skills. A recent study by the University of Warwick's Pip Brown and Michaela Gummerum explores how this gap affects adolescents' ability to spot fake news, highlighting differences in how younger and older teens assess trustworthiness online, and pointing to practical ways in which we can better support young people in navigating unreliable digital content.

In this study, 375 adolescents from schools, colleges and universities in England were grouped into two categories: early/mid-adolescents (aged between 11 and 16) and older adolescents (aged between 16 and 20).

To test their ability to spot misinformation, the researchers designed an experiment that mimicked real online experiences. Some participants took part in a priming exercise, being shown a mix of real and fake news headlines, and asked to judge their accuracy, while others skipped this step and went straight to the main part of the study.

All participants took part in a task where they were shown pairs of websites on scientific topics like octopus intelligence and antibiotic resistance. One site was accurate, while the other contained spelling mistakes (typographical errors) or factual errors (semantic errors). The websites were designed to look realistic, with different sites having different layouts, images, and headlines.

Participants had to choose which website they trusted more, answer questions based on the information presented, and say how likely they would be to share each one with friends. They also had to spot the errors on the inaccurate sites by clicking directly on them, and explain what made them trust one site over the other.

The study found that older teenagers were better than younger ones at trusting the right websites, especially when errors were based on misleading information — when it came to typos, both age groups performed similarly. Across age groups, young people who were better at spotting these errors showed an enhanced ability to discern which information was true and which was false. In most cases, participants spotted at least one error when asked to, though less than half were caught overall, and younger teens struggled to find more serious factual errors.

Priming had different effects on the two age groups. While it didn't affect how much either age group trusted the information provided, older teens who saw the priming material were more cautious, and less likely to share misleading information. Younger adolescents who saw the same material, however, were no less likely to share it after priming.

The reasons why participants trusted one site over another were somewhat surprising. Over 60% of participants didn't mention accuracy at all in their reasoning, and were far more likely to talk about the layout of a site, its colours, or how easy it was to read. They also reported being swayed by 'scientific' or 'professional' looking layouts. Some even gave reasons based on things that weren't factual, like claiming to recognise a site the researchers had invented. Those who did mention accuracy in their reasoning, though, were more likely to trust the correct information, especially among older adolescents.

The apparent improvement in identifying inaccuracies as they get older, the team says, may reflect a growing sophistication in adolescents' ability to judge source trustworthiness with age. Even so, they argue that teens may need additional, targeted support in developing their vigilance towards online information, in order to ensure that all have the skills to navigate the online landscape safely, and to mitigate further effects of growing online misinformation efforts.

Read the paper in full:
Brown, P., & Gummerum, M. (2025). Trust issues: Adolescents' epistemic vigilance towards online sources. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12559

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