Four online services have today pledged to adopt Ofcom’s best practice principles for promoting media literacy on their platforms.
Developing strong media literacy skills can help internet users engage with online services critically, safely and effectively. Online services have an important role to play in empowering people to make informed decisions about what they do online, including by offering users helpful tools and features such as prompts and notifications.
Google Search, The LEGO Group, Pinterest and Roblox have voluntarily signed up to adopt Ofcom’s Best Practice Principles for Media Literacy by Design, which have been developed in collaboration with expert representatives from industry, civil society and the academic community. In brief, the four services pledge to adopt three common principles:
- become accountable for making media literacy a priority on-platform, and increase transparency surrounding what works;
- develop user-centric design and timely ways to put user needs at the centre of the design process; and
- monitor and evaluate media literacy activities on an ongoing basis.
By signing up to adopt the principles, these services are committing to improving and adapting their approach to align more closely with best practice.
As part of the pledge, the four services have submitted examples of how they are already implementing media literacy by design on their services, and areas they would like to focus on in the future. The examples submitted have been published today and provide a benchmark against which future progress can be kept under review, and represents a public commitment to ongoing, accountable action.
Ofcom encourages other online service providers to publicly demonstrate their commitments to their users’ media literacy by signing up to the pledge.
Ofcom publishes three-year plan to promote media literacy
Ofcom has also today published how it plans to step up its own work to promote media literacy over the next three years.
Our aim is to empower everyone to flourish online and navigate content safely. The strategy spans a range of areas from digital inclusion to research, as well as working with expert individuals and organisation and listening to people’s real-life experiences. All this is underpinned by our expectations that online services should go further in promoting media literacy to benefit their users, and we will continue to monitor their progress.
You can read our three-year strategy in full here.