The push for media literacy in education amid the rise of AI

Tech experts, lawmakers and other public officials have long been warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence — especially when it comes to doctored or fake news sources. As such, schools have begun a push toward media literacy in the classroom, a push that has now spilled into the halls of state houses and Congress.   

Many of these lessons aim to teach kids how to identify disinformation and misinformation generated by AI. This is seen as particularly important by educators with the 2024 presidential election on the horizon, but this is not the only reason why media literacy is being pursued. Beyond politics, the "social media tools we use today can have harmful effects that can be life-changing, and deadly, for children," according to the nonprofit group Media Literacy Now.  This can include "cyberbullying, online radicalization through gaming and sextortion," in addition to "physiological and neurological effects we are only beginning to understand."

Amid the rise in AI-generated web content, at least 18 states have implemented laws mandating some form of media literacy education for children, Media Literacy Now said. Beyond this, a pair of congresspeople have also introduced a bill to expand the effort at the federal level.

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The literacy push already in place

The 18 states that already require some form of media literacy classes have all implemented them in different ways, according to Media Literacy Now. Delaware is described as having set the highest bar in the classroom, as it has passed a law that "requires the state Department of Education to write standards for media literacy for K-12 classrooms that schools must use." These standards "promote strong digital citizenship and help ensure all students receive thoughtful instruction on how best to navigate media safely." Similar laws requiring media literacy lessons have also been passed in New Jersey. 

These two states were the first to mandate media literacy for K-12 students, which makes a difference because "what students don't understand is how content is created. They don't understand aggregator sites, they don't understand algorithms and how they work," Olga Polites, a retired English teacher and Media Literacy Now's New Jersey chapter head, said to Governing. The hardware of the media business "was totally missing from their education, but so was the software part because they just didn't understand how this information was being monetized," said Polites. 

Florida, Ohio, California, Texas and more have also passed media literacy laws, though the latter has some caveats. Each school district in the Lone Star State must "incorporate instruction in digital citizenship," Media Literacy Now said. This instruction is required to apply only to "all forms of 'digital' communication, which unnecessarily limits the reach of the instruction, but not by much considering that most media today are created or distributed via digital tools."

Other states, while passing some forms of media literacy laws, have implemented them in more muted ways. In Illinois, a 2021 law requires "high schools to teach a unit of media literacy instruction as of the 2022-2023 school year," Media Literacy Now said, though not prior to high school. However, a law to teach overarching internet safety law to third graders and above was passed in 2009.

Many students in these states seem to be taking the lessons positively. "Media literacy has absolutely nothing to do with which side of the debate you're on," New Jersey school librarian Lisa Manganello said to CNN. Students can "have an opinion on either side, but you should be able to validate that opinion with a fact-based article," Manganello said, and that "information literacy is the umbrella for all of the things that we teach in the library."

The federal literacy push

While individual states are looking to combat AI disinformation, there are no federal guidelines for teaching media literacy. But some in Congress are trying to change that. A bipartisan bill, the AI Literacy Act, was introduced in 2023 by Rep. Lisa Blunt-Rochester (D-Del.) and Rep Larry Bruschon (R-Ind.). The proposed bill "codifies AI literacy as a key component of digital literacy and creates opportunities to incorporate it into existing programs."

Beyond this, the bill "further highlights the importance of AI Literacy for national competitiveness," Forbes said, and "highlights the importance of supporting AI literacy at every level of education, and requires annual reports to Congress on the state of this initiative." There has been no movement on the bill since its introduction.