Online and in the know? Public legal education, young people and the Internet

•This study explores how young people use the Internet to obtain legal information.•Virtual desktops track web search behaviour.•Internet use does not always directly equate to increased knowledge.•Directing individuals to a specific site provides advantages.•Action-orientated information remains difficult to acquire.

Over the last decade the Internet has played a growing role in the resolution strategies of many of those who face civil justice problems. Drawing on data from a novel experiment capturing the online information-seeking behaviours of 208 students, this paper explores how young people in England use the Internet when faced with a hypothetical civil justice problem relating to housing or employment law. The study finds that while the Internet holds potential as a Public Legal Education (PLE) tool, exposure to online legal information does not directly equate to improved knowledge of rights or knowledge of how to handle a civil justice problem. The Internet's utility in this respect, continues to be constrained by the quality of information provided and the public's capacity to use it and apply it in a meaningful way.