This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia, which closed in 2021.

What Happens When Kids Google 'Is Santa Real?'

What Happens When Kids Google 'Is Santa Real?'
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The wide-eyed magic of Christmas may be ruined with a single Google search.

We're all adults here -- we all know Santa is real -- but spare a thought for the young, impressionable children who might be doubting.

If they went to Google and typed in 'is Santa real' this is what they'd find:

Yep, a bunch of Bah Humbugging, Saint Nick-naysaying nonsense about Santa's alleged fakeness.

I know, we were shocked too.

But how many kids of a Santa-questioning age use Google? The answer is, a lot.

In 2008-09, nine in 10 households with children under 15 had access to a home computer and 79 percent aged five to 14 reported accessing the internet.

By 2012, Kids Matter found 11 per cent of eight to nine year olds have their own mobile phone, while 95 per cent of eight to 11 year olds had accessed the internet ‘in the last four weeks’.

Nowadays, child safety expert Jessica Sims told The Huffington Post the internet was increasingly the go-to for young people's embarrassing questions.

"Once upon a time, we'd ask our older siblings or big kids in the school ground for things like 'is Santa real?' or 'how do you tell someone you like them?' but today, they just Google it," Sims told HuffPost Australia.

"As soon as they can spell and type, you can expect they'll be figuring out how to search the internet."

As for Google's role in this Father Christmas farce, we put it to a Google spokesman who had this to say to HuffPost Australia:

"We don't comment on rumour or speculation, but if Santa wasn't real, we wouldn't be tracking his journey around the world!"

Bravo Google.

Bravo Santa -- and be sure to enjoy the cookies we leave out.

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