Keeping It Real: An Exploratory Study of How 13-14-Year-Olds Critically Engage with Online Content

"Media literacy has reached a critical moment for teenagers: now, more than ever before, they need to be equipped with skills and tools to navigate an increasingly polarised and potentially misleading daily onslaught of content online."

This report shares the findings of an exploratory study, conducted by Free Press Unlimited (FPU), to provide insights into young people's critical engagement with online social media content in different country contexts. The study focused on children aged 13-14 from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in Mexico, South Africa, and the Netherlands. It is hoped that the findings of this research can help shape new approaches to media literacy training in around the world.

As stated in the report, "To support the critical media and information literacy skills of young people, it is vital that we understand what currently influences their tendency to be critical - or not - online." The study, therefore, set out to identify factors that influence whether youth engage critically with the information they encounter online - that is, whether they try to determine if what they see is reliable. It further sought to find out if these factors - characteristics of the young person themselves and/or of the content they see - differ depending on their background. For example, what makes a 13-year-old in Mexico take a critical look at a social media post? And is that the same as what makes a South African or Dutch 13-year-old more critical?

The study involved a questionnaire, an observation exercise, and interviews, and the findings have been used to construct:

• Profiles for each group of participants focused on their critical engagement with the information they encounter on social media. These profiles are based on the commonalities between the participants from the respective groups, not by averaging their results. They are based on characteristics such as socioeconomic backgrounds, where they live, education, or what language they speak.
• Personas describing different styles of engaging with online content that were found in all groups. The personas identified in the study include: the Safety Seeker, the Awareness Raiser, the Entertainment Junkie, the Dedicated Fan, the Socialiser, and the Scroller. A Safety Seeker, for example, is someone who aims to avoid potential harm online; they do not interact with content they believe is not genuine, and they are discerning about friend requests. A Socialiser is all about friends, connecting across several social media platforms. They are discerning about friends but still have hundreds - and they believe the things they share.

The profiles and personas are intended to be used as input for developing tools or methods that aim to increase the ability of children of different backgrounds to engage critically with information online. As FPU explains, "with a sample size limited to 93 children, the data itself should not be considered conclusive, statistically significant or fully representative, but rather exploratory. We wanted to get an impression of the bigger picture and find clues for future work on media literacy for educators, practitioners, media and media development organisations. The findings of this study can also be used by research institutes as hypotheses or input for further research."

The findings also include an overview of personal factors that affect young people's critical engagement. These factors include confidence with digital content, socioeconomic background, parental monitoring, approaches to determining truth, stories involving violence and danger, friend requests, and peer support. The report offers a global overview and a country-by-country description of these factors. Within each country, it establishes patterns in four areas: demographics and home life; experience and knowledge; use of social media; and behaviour and attitude.

Across all countries, for example, the findings of the study show that participants with higher socioeconomic backgrounds displayed more critical engagement than those with middle and lower socioeconomic backgrounds in both Mexico and South Africa. Furthermore, participants with higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely than those from middle or lower groups to have explicit strategies for deciding on whether to accept friend requests. Findings also showed that both a lack of confidence and overconfidence in their ability to recognise what information is true or false hinders taking a deliberate approach - both lead to quick judgement. This finding suggests that it would be beneficial to foster a greater sense of agency in the children towards interpreting the content. What could help, for example, is an understanding that the posts they see are created by a real person, who has their own views or purpose and who made choices (deliberate or not) about what to post and from which angle.

In terms of country-specific findings, the sample from Mexico revealed a lot of room for improvement in the participants' inclination to engage critically with the content on their social media feeds. The South Africa research revealed a significant difference in moments of critical engagement between participants from high socioeconomic level and from middle-low and low economic levels, similar to the divide between the groups in Mexico.

Based on the findings, the report offers several sets of recommendations: for educators seeking to improve media literacy skills; for media and media development organisations seeking to engage with youth on the importance of reliable information; and for further research. The following are a selection of highlighted recommendations:

• Involve young people actively in the content production of news and information that is geared toward their age group, which may entail the participation of (independent) journalists in encouraging critical thinking, sharing their experiences, and helping youth understand the choices journalists and other content producers make.
• Facilitate peer-to-peer support, because within-group differences are large, and children are receptive to support from their peers.
• Provide children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds with the facilities wealthier children have at home.
• Instead of closely monitoring children's online behaviour, support children in asking questions when they arise, which increases the likelihood they will develop a critical attitude.
• Encourage children to check information when they don't trust it, to make explicit their view of whether something is reliable (ideally, through a step-by-step process), and to apply this understanding deliberately and consistently.