Many people in Caribbean Netherlands doubt the accuracy of info seen online
Practically all residents of St Eustatius aged 15 and over have access to the internet at home (97 percent). On Saba, this share was slightly lower at 92 percent. Almost everyone on the islands (97 percent) uses the internet every day or almost every day – either at home or at work. This is according to new figures on internet usage in the Caribbean Netherlands from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
94 percent of residents said they had made phone calls or video calls online in the past three months, for example using WhatsApp, Skype, Messenger or MS Teams. The same proportion of people had sent text messages using WhatsApp, Signal, Snapchat or TikTok, for example. A total of 86 percent had used social media, such as Instagram, TikTok or X. There was little or no difference in this regard between the residents of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba.
Around 80 percent of people on Bonaire and St Eustatius said they had used online banking. On Saba, the share was lower, at just over 60 percent. The number of people on Saba who had sent or received emails was also lower than on the other two islands. Around two in three residents had searched for information online, for example about products or health.
| Internetgebruik | Bonaire (% of people aged 15 and over) | St Eustatius (% of people aged 15 and over) | Saba (% of people aged 15 and over) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone calls or video calls | 94.4 | 94.5 | 91.1 |
| Text messages | 94.5 | 92.0 | 92.5 |
| Social media | 86.3 | 84.3 | 82.3 |
| Internet banking | 78.7 | 82.5 | 62.4 |
| E-mails | 74.5 | 78.7 | 66.8 |
| 1) in the past three months | |||
Majority of residents sometimes doubt the accuracy of online information
Two-thirds of residents on Bonaire and Saba said they had seen or read information at some point in the past three months which they believed to be untrue, or of which they doubted the accuracy. On St Eustatius, the share was lower, at just over half. People are the most likely to be sceptical about information they have seen on social media. Just over half of residents of Bonaire and Saba said they had seen information on social media that they knew was untrue, or of which they doubted the accuracy. This share was higher than on St Eustatius, where it was 40 percent. People were less likely to come across information they thought was untrue on news websites and elsewhere on the internet.
| Medium | Bonaire (% of people aged 15 and over) | St Eustatius (% of people aged 15 and over) | Saba (% of people aged 15 and over) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 65.8 | 52.5 | 65.7 |
| On social media | 50.5 | 39.8 | 53.3 |
| On news websites | 13.2 | 14.5 | 18.4 |
| On sources other than the internet | 10.3 | 10.0 | 16.6 |
| 1)In the past three months. Multiple answers possible | |||
Over three-quarters of residents check the information they read online
Over three-quarters of residents check whether the information they read or see on the internet is true. They do this, for example, by checking the sources, consulting reliable online sources or sources other than the internet, or discussing it with others. Residents of St Eustatius are more likely to do this than residents of Bonaire.
Around 30 percent of residents said they had, at some point, checked whether a website was safe – by checking whether the address began with ‘https’ or by looking for a security logo, for example. There were no differences in this regard between residents of the three islands.
| Controle | Bonaire (% of people aged 15 and over) | St Eustatius (% of people aged 15 and over) | Saba (% of people aged 15 and over) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Check the accuracy of the information | 74.0 | 81.1 | 77.1 |
| Check whether a website is safe | 31.6 | 32.8 | 28.7 |
| ¹⁾In the past three months. Multiple answers possible. | |||