According to a recent study, if it’s in the top results of the SERPs, one out of three children in Great Britain assume it’s true.
An exhaustive report from Ofcom (a UK regulatory agency) concerning media literacy found that 32 percent of UK children aged 12-15 years old are of the conviction that the links/listings shown in the upper slots of search results are there because they are the most “truthful.”
A summary of the report reads as follows:
Among children aged 12-15 who use the internet, almost all have experience of using search engine websites (94%).
Those who use search engine sites were shown a list of options and were asked to say which, if any, apply in terms of the way results are shown on search engine sites.
There is no clear consensus among search engine users, but 12-15s are more likely to respond that results are ranked on their usefulness or relevance (37%) or their truthfulness (32%) than they are to respond that websites pay money to be at the top of the list (14%).
One question in particular provided insight into how kids look at search results compared to adults – who are not much more discerning than children:
“Which if any of these explain the way results are shown when you use search engine websites like Google, Yahoo, MSN or Ask Jeeves?”
From 2008 to 2009 the number of those who think that top search results are based on “relevance” went down – being replaced by the feeling that the results were based on “truthfulness.”The chart below diagrams the trend:
It wasn’t specified whether ‘top results’ included paid/sponsored results, or just the organic results.
Tags: search engine, SERPs, truth, UK