Ofcom publishes report on children’s media literacy in the UK

Ofcom: The results of detailed research to assess the extent of children’s media literacy in the UK. Ofcom defines media literacy as the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts.

The audit focuses on the four main digital media platforms – digital television, digital radio, the internet and mobile phones. Over 1,500 children aged 8 to 15 plus their parents were interviewed for the research.

Key Findings

• Of children aged 8-11, 35% watch television mostly on their own.

• Over seven in ten parents in cable or satellite television households have not set controls to restrict their children’s access to television channels. Some 15% of parents of 8-11s and 39% of parents of 12-15s said there are no house rules about watching television.

• Some 40% of 8-11s and 71% of 12-15s say they mostly use the internet on their own at home.

• Around half of internet households have no software installed to limit children’s access to certain types of websites.

• Two in three (67%) children aged 12-15 who use the internet at home said they trust most of what they find on the internet.

• Some 78% of children aged 12–15 feel that news programmes are either always true or true most of the time whereas 54% say this about current affairs programmes and 33% say this of reality TV programmes.

• Girls aged 12-15 are more likely than boys to have a mobile phone (87% compared to 77%), use the internet (63%, 54%), listen to the radio (54%, 40%), and read newspapers or magazines (49%, 36%). Boys in this age group only exceed girls for playing console or computer games (66% compared to 51%).

Fullt report Press release

Publ 20060503