Getting the Facts

March 23, 2016 , 0

Ofcom's new media literacy factsheets for children.

Caroline Douglas, Senior Research Manager, Ofcom, describes what the new resources offer...

Ofcom’s media literacy research programme ensures that we talk to children and young people aged 3-15 each year about a whole array of things connected with their media use and attitudes. We carry out a large scale survey of over 2000 parents and children, as well as qualitative work. This year we thought it would be a good idea to make it easier for children to see what other children are doing and saying about media, so that they can see how their behaviour and attitudes compare to those their own age, and so that they can think about some of the issues we ask about. So we created two factsheets for children to use, based on the results of the 8-11 age group in our survey.

• Factsheet 1: What devices do you have, and use?

• Factsheet 2: How online smart are you?

The factsheets show the proportion of UK 8-11s who own or have access to devices such as a mobile phone, TV, computer, tablet, DVD player, or games console; and those who have access to the internet at home. The factsheets also show the proportion who say they use these every day, and which devices they would miss the most. Online activities are also shown, along with the proportion of this age group who trust certain web sites, who know how online advertising works, and who they would speak to if they were worried about something they saw online.

We have also created accompanying activity sheets which can be used by children to record their own results, and create their own classroom surveys to compare to that of the Ofcom report and UK children of their own age. Results can then be presented via charts or graphs, using the Ofcom report as guidance if needed.

A list of useful links for further information about children’s online safety in particular is also included on the activity sheets, which can be found at Ofcom’s Media Literacy site.

And our full report with all the findings can be found here: Children and Parents: Media use and Attitudes

We are keen to get feedback on the factsheets and activity sheets, to find out whether they are helpful, and what would be useful to provide. Please email us at media.literacy@ofcom.org.uk if you have any comments or suggestions.

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