CONTRIBUTORS
A new core skill: media literacy becomes compulsory at last
Comment by education journalist SAL MCKEOWN
Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is about to become mandatory. It is long overdue. For years, we have had Safer Internet Day with a different focus each year. This year it was ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams’. Next year it will be ‘Smart Tech, Safe Choices: Exploring the safe and responsible use of AI’. But safety awareness is not enough. In an age of algorithms and AI, children need the skills and knowledge to defend themselves and MIL will give them practical training in everything from fact checking to identifying bias.
First News, the UK’s national newspaper for children, has worked with the Media and Information Literacy Alliance (MILA) to produce primary and secondary frameworks. In a joint statement, they say: ‘With young people exposed to news, opinions, and online content from an ever- growing range of sources – including those partially or wholly powered by AI - the ability to engage critically with media and information has never been more important; especially now that 16-year-olds are to be given the right to vote.’
It’s not only soon-to-be voters who need to pick their way through a minefield of information, separating truth from falsehoods, facts from opinions. According to the Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report from Ofcom, 37% of parents of 3-5s reported that their child used at least one social media app in 2024, compared to 29% in 2023. With the introduction of apps into early years and the rapid rise of generative AI, testing the veracity of information is one of the most important skills any child can develop.
Teachers are short of time and are increasingly turning to AI for lesson preparation which may bring its own problems. The developers of the First News TeachKit: Media & Information Literacy have produced teaching packs with Schemes of Work, prompts, PowerPoint slides, talking points and takeaways for parents. Currently there are resources for KS2 and KS3, aimed at children aged 7-14. There are news-based resources which give topicality to the issues. Fortnightly, these are interspersed with the ‘evergreen’ resources which have a longer shelf- life. The teaching packs are built around MILA’s five ‘domains’:
• Be informed • Be empowered • Be healthy
• Be socially conscious • Be connected
I talked to two people closely involved in the creation of MIL. Julian McDougall is Chair of the UK Media and Information Literacy Alliance and Professor in Media Education at Bournemouth University. His findings show that MIL has lessened the vulnerability of young citizens to online harms and mis/disinformation. He points out that climate change has led to a toxic natural environment but, ‘We don’t say to young people, it’s going to get worse and worse, just be resilient to it. We encourage them to take action.’ A structured comprehensive MIL programme is a key element in helping young people to defend themselves.
January 2026
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Helen Mulley, Education Lead at First News, says: ‘Discussing the news or politics or anything even vaguely contentious has become quite scary for teachers in the current climate and we need to roll back on that. The school needs to be a safe space to have all kinds of discussions, without teachers worrying that they’re going to be hauled over the coals or imposing their ideas on vulnerable young minds.’ The aim of MIL is to make those vulnerable minds curious, able to fact check information and form their own opinions.
The modules provide information, support for unfamiliar vocabulary and ideas to prompt discussion and activities. Can Robots Make Stuff Up: AI trained to bluff if it doesn’t know is aimed at years 3 and 4. It offers starter questions to provide a context: Is it ok to lie? What might happen if you say something happened, when it didn’t? What could go wrong? The lesson looks at fun examples of what AI can do, how AI can sometimes get things wrong and why it’s a good idea to check. The secondary materials follow the same structure of starter questions, information, discussion and activity. Knowing When to Switch Off offers findings from The Good Childhood Report 2025 as a prompt for debate and a creative follow up where students plan and film a short video to signpost young people toward self-care in the digital age. Often, children’s main experience of the digital world is at home in their bedrooms. While internet safety advice suggests parents should discuss what children are seeing and doing online, many have no idea where to start or what to talk about. First News TeachKit provides a note to parents that can be printed out on a card. The heading is Ask Me What I Learnt Today. It outlines the lesson and offers two or three points young people can discuss with family. Julian McDougall says this can have a knock-on effect. His research has shown that: ‘When young people are supported to become more media- and information- literate in school, they take this home. This creates inter-generational media literacy, which has clear benefits for social cohesion, civic life and democracy.’ That is something that will benefit us all.
Find out more and get started from £199 at
firstnews.co.uk/mil. For any further enquiries, contact
education@firstnews.co.uk.
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