LONDON: A new poll has found that teenagers trust social media influencers more than politicians to tell them the truth about the news and current affairs.

The study, commissioned by BBC Education, surveyed more than 2,000 teenagers aged between 11 and 16 and found that social media is the main source of news for that age group.

"The results show how confused a lot of young people are about where to go to get reliable information. They're moving away from more traditional news sources but they're not sure whether what they see and hear in other places can be trusted," said Helen Foulkes, the head of BBC Education.

When asked who they trusted most to tell the truth about the news, only 1% of respondents said that they trusted politicians most, as opposed to 5% who said social media influencers.

The most trusted source of news were parents, with 36% of respondents voting for that option.

35% of respondents used social media sites, including YouTube, as their main source of news, compared with 9% who said news websites and 3% who chose newspapers.

TikTok was the most popular platform for accessing news, with 30% of respondents saying that it was the first app they used. However, despite its popularity, TikTok scored the lowest in terms of trust, with 31% of respondents saying that it was the least-trusted platform.

TikTok was followed by YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, with 23%, 19% and 13% of respondents selecting that option, respectively.

Television was the most trusted source of news, amassing more than 74% of votes. Meanwhile, 60% of respondents voted for radio as a trusted source of news, followed by online news sources and social media with 57% and 47%, respectively.

The BBC was the most trusted news provider, with 67% of respondents saying that they believed news from the broadcaster.

This was followed by ITV with 65% and Channel 4 with 56%. Meanwhile, 51% of respondents trusted news from YouTube and 50% trusted newspapers.

 - TNS