Children Turning to Social Media for News, UK Regulator Finds

A 3D printed Youtube and TikTok logo placed on keyboard on Sept. 15, 2020. Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Children are increasingly turning to social media for news and “generally believe” what they discover online is true, according to a new study by Britain’s communications regulator Ofcom.

Many children watch CBBC Newsround at school but very few watch mainstream news programmes at home, the study found. CBBC Newsround is a BBC news channel for children.

Instead, they turn to social media for information and many found out about the death of Queen Elizabeth II through TikTok or YouTube.

A logo of Ofcom, the UK's broadcast and communications regulator in an undated photo. Yui Mok/PA Media

Some younger children were unable to identify fake accounts, said the Ofcom report published on Wednesday.

“Whether they consumed it actively or passively, children generally believed that what they saw, read, or heard on social media was true. They rarely reflected on its veracity, reliability, or relevance.

“Only in a few cases, where children were particularly interested in a topic or feared they would be called out later for believing something that was untrue, did they seem to reflect more actively.”

Dramatic Videos

The study found that children are becoming drawn to “dramatic” videos which appear designed to maximise stimulation but require minimal effort and focus.

Children do not always understand whether they are watching a drama or documentary and whether the events they are following are real or fabricated, the report said.

Some 96 percent of all children aged 3 to 17 watch videos on video-sharing sites and apps. More than half of all youngsters view live-streamed video content (58 percent), which increases to 80 percent among 16–17-year-olds.

Short-form video apps TikTok and Snapchat saw significant increases in use over the last year.

Some 53 percent of all children are using TikTok, though YouTube remains the most popular site or app, used by 88 percent of 3–17-year-olds.

Gossip, conflict, controversy, extreme challenges, and high stakes—often involving large sums of money—are recurring themes.

“Commentary” and “reaction” video formats, particularly those stirring up rivalry between influencers while encouraging viewers to pick sides, are also appealing to participants.

These videos often follow a distinct, stimulating editing style, designed to create maximum dramatic effect, the report said. This involves heavy use of choppy, “jump-cut” edits, rapidly changing camera angles, special effects, animations, and fast-paced speech.

‘Split-Screening’

In the past year, more and more children have started splitting their screens and watching two videos at once.

Split-screen social media posts allow children to watch more than one short-form video simultaneously, on a single screen, side-by-side, or stacked on top of one another.

This appears to be a progression of the “multi-screening” behaviour seen in previous research, where children reported difficulties focusing on one screen-based activity at a time.

Sometimes the two split-screen videos watched by participants were related, such as influencers reacting and offering an opinion on real-world events. In other cases, the two videos had no obvious connection.

Young Adults

The Ofcom study found that older teenagers and young adults aged 16 to 24 are among the most avid online users, typically using 9 online communication sites or apps on a regular basis—compared to 6 for the average adult internet user.

As with younger children, TikTok and Snapchat have grown in popularity among 16–24s over the last year, overtaking Instagram as the social media platform they said they used most often.

Just over half (51 percent) of social media users in that age group said they are spending too much time on it—up from 42 percent in 2021 and significantly higher than the average (32 percent).

They are more likely than the average social media user to say they need to take breaks from it or delete apps because they are using them too often.

Parents are more likely to believe the risks of social media outweigh the benefits, the research revealed.

TikTok’s Rising Influence

The growing popularity of TikTok and children’s increasing reliance on social media for news content are particularly worrying, considering the app’s links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime.

TikTok has already been banned by U.S., EU, and UK authorities from government devices after its China-based parent company ByteDance admitted that some of its China-based employees had accessed TikTok data to monitor and track the physical location of journalists.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 23, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

These admissions, as well as warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies, prompted the Biden administration to demand earlier this month that ByteDance sell its stakes in the company or face a likely nationwide ban in the United States.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on March 26 that his chamber would be moving forward with legislation to ban the controversial video app.

The move was expected after testimony from Singapore-based TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi before members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23 failed to convince lawmakers that TikTok had separated from its China-based parent company ByteDance and wouldn’t pose a national security risk.

Following Chew’s testimony, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the Biden administration remained concerned about TikTok’s “well-established” threats to national security over data security and content manipulations.

Melanie Sun and PA Media contributed to this report.