Digital Competence and the Detection of Fake News and Hate Speech Among Secondary School History Students

This exploratory study primarily aims to identify and characterise profiles of digital competence and information evaluation among secondary-school students, considering their academic performance in Geography and History. It also examines gender differences in online information practices and associations between Internet use, academic performance, and information-searching and evaluation skills, including the recognition of fake news and hate speech. A quantitative methodology was employed, combining descriptive, inferential, and correlation analyses with two-step cluster analysis. The non-probabilistic convenience sample comprised 72 third- and fourth-year secondary-school students from a public rural school in Toledo (Castilla-La Mancha, Spain). Cluster analysis identified three provisional profiles: a larger profile characterised by lower reported technical competence and moderate academic performance; a second profile with higher reported digital competence and notable academic achievement; and a third combining strong academic performance with lower reported digital competence. Information-searching skills, technical knowledge, and fake news detection were the variables contributing most to profile differentiation, whereas time spent online had the lowest importance. Fake news detection was also significantly associated with academic performance. Gender comparisons showed higher reported technical competence and information-searching and verification skills among male students, while differences in fake news and hate speech recognition were not statistically significant. Given the small, single-school convenience sample and reliance on self-reported measures, these findings should be interpreted cautiously and not generalised beyond this context.