A survey of more than 1,000 teenagers has found that while young people primarily use social media to stay informed, they have little confidence in these platforms. According to the National Trust Monitor Media (Nationaal Vertrouwensmonitor Media) by research agencies Newcom and Pinch, around eight out of ten young people use social media to follow the news.
Participants gave Snapchat and TikTok an average reliability score of 6.2 out of 10. Other platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram, and X, also received only a narrow pass. In contrast, young people expressed much higher levels of trust in traditional news outlets such as NOS, NRC, and de Volkskrant, which received scores of nearly eight
Researchers noted that many young people do not actively seek out information but instead let news come to them. They explained that while younger generations are not disconnected from current events, their relationship with the news is different from that of older generations. News often reaches them passively through digital platforms rather than through active consumption.
The study also highlighted a resistance to artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism. More than half of the participants find it unacceptable for articles to be produced entirely by AI, with fewer than one in six supporting the practice. Furthermore, more than half of the young people surveyed reported seeing a significant amount of fake news online. News Brainport also outlines the role of social media in the recent elections in a research report. The impact of social media, AI and cultural differences is presented in detail in the report.
NEWS BRAINPORT
