United Kingdom : Ofcom’s new approach to online media literacy

As the health crisis of the last two years has shown, it has never been more important to be able to use technology and online services effectively, to work remotely, to educate and entertain children, to maintain social cohesion, …

The British Ofcom has a mission to make electronic communications work for everyone, both in traditional formats and online. This means that the institution has to think about how everyone can benefit from all that the Internet has to offer, safely. It also means addressing the imbalance of skills and knowledge between different parts of the population and encouraging platforms to design media literacy programs.

Promoting media literacy is an essential tool in this primary mission of defending the interests of citizens and consumers, and will be critical to Ofcom’s future functions as an online safety regulator. It is in this context that Ofcom has reviewed its approach to promoting media literacy, and how it fits into its role as online regulator.