**1. Introduction**

Research processes for most of today's young learners include online searches. However, the ability to conduct online searches and discern online information is a challenge for children and adolescents [1–4], and children struggle with basic skills [5,6]. This struggle is in part due to the unique features of what we call the "wild wide web" [4], which contains unvetted content, fake news, ads, and other features that distract from desired information and make internet searches complicated [2,7]. The term "fake news" has been used to describe fabricated news, with no factual basis, that is presented to the public as a credible report [8,9]. Loos, Ivan, and Leu [10] (2018) as well as other researchers [11–14] sugges<sup>t</sup> that fake news threatens information access, which is a basic right of all citizens. In addition, the threat of "fake news" on the internet complicates instruction related to the internet as an information source. To discern credible information and news, readers must apply critical thinking to develop what we call "reliability reasoning" [5] (pp. 85–86), or the ability to determine the credibility of online information. The development of such critical thinking requires instruction and practice; ye<sup>t</sup> many teachers are reluctant to allow children to search the wild wide web due to safety concerns [4]. A 2019 study found that most teacher-recommended websites designed for elementary students operate in neat, tidy, and safe walled gardens; students navigate pre-vetted websites, avoiding the "wild wide web" [4] (p. 97). In a walled garden environment, searches are restricted to content within the host's website [15], which limits authentic experiences and does not pose the same "messy" (p. 112) challenges of discerning between relevant content and ads and other distractors.

**Citation:** Pilgrim, J.; Vasinda, S. Fake News and the "Wild Wide Web": A Study of Elementary Students' Reliability Reasoning. *Societies* **2021**, *11*, 121. https://doi.org/10.3390/ soc11040121

Academic Editors: Eugène Loos and Loredana Ivan

Received: 20 August 2021 Accepted: 25 September 2021 Published: 1 October 2021

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How can students discern information on the internet without authentic practice? Children will use the internet as an information source, with or without instruction on how to do so. As educators, we have a responsibility to keep our young readers safe, and we also have a responsibility to equip them to handle the discoveries and distractions of wild online reading. Therefore, over the past five years we have continued our work with elementary students in grades 1–5 to understand the skills students exhibit when it comes to searching for and evaluating information on the internet. We recently revisited a 2006 University of Connecticut study in which seventh graders lacked the skills needed to determine the credibility of a website about a tree octopus. Using the same website twelve years later, we re-examined how 68 first- through fifth-grade students evaluated the source and shared rationales about its authenticity. Although the students in our study were more critical of the tree octopus article, 65% of students trusted the information. Only at the fifth-grade level did more students question the accuracy of the website information than those who trusted it [6]. Many students believed the tree octopus article to be credible because it had "real" pictures. If young learners trust "real" photos, then other issues present with fake news, in which articles hide behind a "mask of legitimacy" [3], may be problematic. Since this study, we have extended our work with students in grades 1–5 to evaluate concepts of online text and concepts of online research. For the purpose of this article, we discuss findings related to internet searches on the "wild wide web," using two tasks that require the narrowing and evaluation of websites and their content. The guiding question for this study was: What search and evaluation skills do students in grades 1–5 demonstrate during an internet query?
