This report by the Centre for Education & Youth underscores the urgent need to bolster media literacy among children and families in an increasingly digital world. It highlights the current landscape, identifies gaps, and proposes actionable solutions to enhance media literacy education in the UK.
The digital age has transformed how children interact with media, presenting both opportunities and challenges. The shift in policy focus towards regulating online platforms has left a significant gap in media literacy education. This gap underscores the necessity of equipping young people with the skills needed to critically analyse and engage with media content responsibly.
There have been significant steps in the right direction in recent years. Important reforms to the Personal, Social, Health and Economic curriculum (PSHE) mean that all children must now learn about aspects of online safety, including healthy relationships, harmful content and digital citizenship. But media literacy teaching remains inconsistent and fragmented.
The report emphasises the critical role of media literacy in fostering informed, responsible, and safe digital citizens, and suggests five ideas to transform media literacy through the classroom. These include:
A cross-curricular approach to media literacy, similar to numeracy and literacy. A national framework should be developed to ensure every student leaves school with the digital skills needed to thrive online.