Search engines and the sex education information practices of LGBTQ+ youth

Online resources are vital to the health information practices of LGBTQ+ youth, especially when finding information related to sex education topics. As LGBTQ+ youth use the internet, particularly Google Search, to meet their sex and sexual health information needs, it is important to understand both the information practices related to this unique search experience and how the affordances of this particular search engine impact the information seeking process. The goal of this project is to study the online information practices of LGBTQ+ youth when searching for sex education information, specifically perceptions of and interactions with search engines. Using semi‐structured interviews, we ask LGBTQ+ youth to discuss their information practices related to sex education information and use Google Search to answer sample questions related to sex and sexual health. In this work in progress poster, we discuss our theoretical framing, methods, and preliminary results.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163483/2/pra2364_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163483/1/pra2364.pd