Finding 8
Trust in adults is high, especially among younger teenagers.
Summary:
Our findings echoed wider research findings of low trust in public institutions and politics amongst young people.
There were notably high levels of trust in parents, although there is a considerable drop off in trust as teenagers age.
Teachers elicited a more binary response from young people although a majority said they had moderate or complete trust in teachers.
These adults were the fact-checkers of choice for young people – ‘ask a teacher’ or ‘ask my parents’ was a very common response when asked how to fact-check a story.
Pupils – especially older pupils – spoke about parents having a key role to play in young people's susceptibility to misinformation online.
Given our wider findings on the lack of confidence adults have in this space, as well as their own susceptibility to conspiracy theories and disinformation, this trust in adults creates other challenges in validating young people’s beliefs.
Our research echoed wider research findings of low trust in public institutions and politics (outlined in the Context section), with 35% of 11-18-year-olds polled stating that they do not trust the government ‘at all’, compared to 29% who say the same about social media influencers. In contrast, there were notably high levels of trust in parents (88%), and very few (11%) who said they had little or no trust in their parents. Teachers elicited a more binary response from young people: a majority said they had moderate (38%) or complete trust (22%) in teachers, although a minority (6%) said they had no trust at all.
Graph 9: In general, how much would you say you trust the following, if at all? [Pupils]
While parents were the most trusted group among young people, there was a considerable drop off in trust as teenagers age. 80% of 11-year-olds say they have complete trust in their parents compared to only 43% of 18-year-olds. The falling trust young people have in parents as they age is mirrored in their declining trust for teachers. 27% of 11-year-olds say they have complete trust in their teachers compared to only 17% of 18 year-olds. Moreover, pupils also see parents and teachers as accurate sources of information. 57% of pupils say their parents provide accurate information, ahead of scientific research (48%), and teachers (43%).
School staff are not just sources of information for young people, but potential trusted adults who young people can approach if they are concerned. Some 63% of young people were confident they could speak to a teacher if someone in their class told them information that they found offensive. Following previous trends, this confidence declined with age, with only 52% of 17-18-year-olds feeling confident they could do so, in comparison to 66% of 11-12-year-olds.
In our qualitative research pupils consistently named parents and teachers as primary trusted sources of information. These adults were the fact-checkers of choice for young people – ‘ask a teacher’ or ‘ask my parents’ was a very common response when asked how to fact-check a story.
Pupils – especially older pupils – spoke about parents having a key role to play in young people’s susceptibility to misinformation online. Young people spoke about the different approaches parents took, with a focus on the need to equip young people rather than restrict their access to the internet.
“Parents have more knowledge so you can discuss it [online content] with them.”
“[If a friend got into conspiracies] I’d tell their Mum about it.”
However, as pupils age, they report increasing faith in scientific research. Indeed, 70% of 11-12 years say their parents are accurate sources of information, versus to 42% for scientific research. This is in comparison to 37% of 17-18-year-olds who say parents are accurate sources of information versus to 54% who trust the accuracy of scientific research. While this is not necessarily a problem per se, some of this may well be part of the natural process of growing up and finding new sources of authority asides from one’s parents, this does have implications for interventions in this space with older children. This downward trajectory is mirrored in the way young people perceive teachers as an information source. A majority (56%) of 11-12-year-olds cite their teachers among those they believe provide accurate information, compared to just 19% of 17-18-year-olds.