B

Baroness Keeley (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 22 May 2025

Debate

Young People’s Media Literacy

Contribution

My Lords, media literacy is indeed the subject of the Communications and Digital Committee’s current inquiry. Evidence we have received argues strongly that good media literacy for young people is characterised by sustained and repeated engagement and interwoven throughout the curriculum, across all subjects. Sadly, that is not the case in our schools in England. We have heard, in fact, that the rigidity of the curriculum—the emphasis on assessment—can mean that media literacy skills are deprioritised because they are not assessed, and that relegating media literacy to optional subjects or ad hoc PSHE sessions is insufficient. Members of the UK Youth Parliament described to us lessons that were reactive, infrequent and did not engage pupils. The committee will report back to your Lordships’ House on our inquiry in the summer, but do the Government accept that this important subject needs to be properly taught and embedded in the curriculum?

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