Statewide cellphone bans aren’t the only measures policymakers are taking to help schools navigate a complex digital media landscape.
At least half of U.S. states have enacted laws to advance media literacy education, with 11 states passing new legislation since January 2024, according to a report released this month by Media Literacy Now, a nonprofit organization.
State lawmakers’ push for media literacy education comes as artificial intelligence tools are increasingly being used to create fake stories and images. That content is then blasted around the globe on social media.
“Schools are getting bombarded by needing to use all these different devices, by kids coming in with cellphones, by social media,” when for years they’ve mostly focused on “reading, writing, basics,” said Kyra Brissette, the CEO of Media Literacy Now. “I think we’ve outgrown our education system in that way. We need to think a little bit differently about how we’re educating students. That’s why those critical thinking skills of media literacy really would be helpful across subject areas.”
While at least 33 states and the District of Columbia restrict student cellphone use in schools, several states—including Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee—have coupled limitations on students’ use of cellphones in school with a requirement to provide media literacy education, according to the report.
Alabama’s law was enacted last year. That measure bars students from using a wireless device during instructional time, beginning this school year. It also requires students to receive instruction by 8th grade on the potential downsides and benefits of social media.
Media Literacy Now doesn’t take a position on cellphone bans, Brissette said. But the organization believes that understanding how to make sense of digital content needs to be central to any overall K-12 technology strategy.
Faith Rogow, an independent scholar and author of Media Literacy for Young Children: Teaching Beyond the Screen Time Debates, agreed that if districts are going to ban devices, they should pair those restrictions with media literacy education.
If you’re getting rid of phones but “not also teaching media literacy, you are not preparing your students to succeed in the digital world,” where much of what students read on their own time is going to be from online sources, she said.
Media literacy can be incorporated across a range of subjects, experts say
Other laws enacted last year call for expanding or creating media literacy curricula.
For instance, a Georgia law requires districts to incorporate digital citizenship and instruction on appropriate use of technology and social media into the state’s character education program.
A North Carolina law tasks schools with delivering media literacy lessons to help students protect themselves from cyberbullying and predatory behavior.
And Tennessee’s “Teen Social Media and Internet Safety Act” requires the state’s education department to develop social media and digital safety curricula for students in grades 6-12. Those lessons must cover topics such as the negative impact of social media on student mental health and how to evaluate AI-generated information.
Implementing those laws will take effort from schools and educators, the report notes. But Brisette believes that media literacy doesn’t have to be a standalone class.
“Teaching media literacy doesn’t mean you’re adding more to somebody’s plate,” she said. “It can be embedded across all different subject areas and into the existing curriculum.”
