Teenagers trust influencers to tell the truth more than politicians

A poll says under sixteens believe current affairs news from social media influencers more than politicians.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street.

A new poll has revealed that young people are more likely to trust current affairs news from social media influencers than politicians. It also found that TikTok is now the top place for people aged eleven to sixteen to get their information.

A survey of more than two thousand people between eleven and sixteen also implied that social media is the leading news source for the age group. The poll was conducted in May 2022 by Survation and commissioned by BBC Education.

When asked whom they trusted most to tell the truth about the news, only 1% of respondents said politicians, while 5% said social media influencers. The most popular answer was parents, with 36% of the youngsters opting for this.

Some 35% said their primary news source was social media sites, including YouTube, compared with 9% who said news websites and 3% chose newspapers. TikTok was the most common social media platform for sourcing news, with 30% saying this was the first of the social apps they would use. Some 23% opted for YouTube, while 19% said Facebook and 13% chose Instagram.

The survey comes as the BBC announced launching a campaign, Other Side of The Story, to help young people navigate fake news. Available via BBC Bitesize and through workshops, the campaign will supply videos, quizzes and classroom workshops for young people, teachers, and schools.

The broadcaster has said it also aims to help secondary school pupils improve their media and literacy skills and give them insight into how news stories are constructed and sometimes manipulated online. The BBC was voted the most trusted news provider in the poll, with 67% of the youngsters saying they believed what they read and heard from the broadcaster, followed by ITV at 65% and Channel 4 with 56%.

Some 51% said they trusted news on YouTube, while a similar amount - 50% - trusted newspapers. Despite being the first place, many looks for their information, the lowest-ranked platform for trust from the options available was TikTok at 31%, followed by Instagram at 34%.

Facebook, Twitter, and individual newspapers were not included in the options for this question.