Drop Down Days for Staying Safe Online and Countering Disinformation

The importance of young people developing the media literacy skills necessary to keep themselves safe online and to avoid falling prey to false information has never been more apparent.

The civil unrest in the UK during the summer of 2024 highlighted the impact that disinformation consumed online can have on society, while the rise in gender-based violence, as highlighted by the internationally lauded show Adolescence, revealed the dangerous consequences of online radicalisation and extremism.

Almost one-fifth of young people spend 7 hours online each day, which is the equivalent of 106 days/3.5 months per year.  Given this large amount of time being spent online, and the impact the online world can have on behaviour offline, it is vital that young people understand what shapes the content they consume on social media and the internet, and how they can protect themselves. Such understanding can ensure they are critical consumers of the information they encounter. The arrival of generative artificial intelligence, which makes it much easier to fabricate false information, makes this critical engagement all the more important.

Media literacy is not just important, it’s absolutely critical. It’s going to make the difference between whether kids are a tool of the mass media or whether the mass media is a tool for kids to use.

- Linda Ellerbee, Journalist

To support young people in developing media literacy skills, we have created two drop down days, which are adapted from our ten-lesson unit Developing Media Literacy for Well-being, Relationships and Democracy:

• Staying Safe Online
• Developing Information Literacy Skills

Both of these drop down days provide opportunities for schools to invigorate their PSHE/Learning for Life and Work/Health and Well-being/Citizenship curriculums and to support media literacy, while providing young people with additional enrichment and personal development opportunities. 

The content also helps schools fulfil a range of statutory and non-statutory obligations in relation to:

• Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024;
• Teaching Online Safety in Schools;
• Promoting Fundamental British Values as Part of SMSC;
• The Prevent Strategy;
• The Education Inspection Framework for September 2024;
• ​​Online Safety Strategy for Northern Ireland 2020-25;
• Digital Competence Framework (DCF).

Facing History’s Staying Safe Online drop down day focuses on helping students consider what they can do to stay safe online and mitigate the risks associated with the online world.

There is content for a full day of learning, which is divided into five 50-minute sessions:

• Session 1: This session explores internet use and internet safety, and helps students reflect on what they can do to stay safe online. 
• Session 2: This session explores how social media has changed the way people consume information, and encourages students to reflect on their social media use. 
• Session 3: This session explores extremism. The content explores the risks extremism poses to individuals and society, what draws people to extremist ways of thinking and behaving, and the role the Internet and social media play in exposing people to conspiratorial and extremist content.
• Sessions 4 & 5: In these sessions, students have the opportunity to explore an online safety risk and how to mitigate their chosen risk in groups. The groups then present their findings to the class in a format of their choice.

This drop down day can be taught as an off timetable day or as separate sessions. Moreover, it is suitable for delivery at any point during the school year.

Facing History’s Developing Information Literacy Skills drop down day focuses on helping students understand how to consume information they encounter critically, to identify bias in content and to avoid falling prey to false information spread in society.

There is content for a full day of learning, which is divided into five 50-minute sessions:

• Session 1: This session is on the theme of media literacy and explores the importance of media literacy and of being critical consumers of the media. In the content, students reflect on the right to expression and to access to information; are introduced to, and practise using, a method to critically assess media content they encounter; and consider why it is important for young people to be media literate.
• Session 2: This session is on the theme of bias. The session explores how biases can manifest in media language. In the activities, students consider the difference between fact and opinion, explore how to detect bias in language, and reflect on the power of language.
• Session 3: This session is on the theme of misinformation, disinformation and mal-information. Students are introduced to the different types of false, misleading and manipulative content in circulation, and consider what they can do to avoid believing in, and sharing, such content.
• Sessions 4 & 5: There are two options for this session. Both give students the opportunity to share their learning on information and media literacy with their peers. In one option, students do research in groups and present their findings to the class in a format of their choice. In the other option, students explore the impact of conspiracy theories and design a communication strategy based on their learning during the drop down day. 

This drop down day can be taught as an off timetable day or as separate sessions. Moreover, it is suitable for delivery at any point during the school year.

Media literacy education, in the words of media literacy advocates Tessa Jolls and Michele Johnsen, ‘offers democratic societies a way to support independent thinking among their people and arms citizens to minimize their chances of being misinformed or manipulated, without sacrificing the ideal of freedom of expression, or risking censorship’.

The development of media literacy skills can help students feel empowered to assess information themselves, and trust in their capacity to discern what is true from what is not. This can enhance their decision-making skills and help them grow as effective problem-solvers, who can reflect on societal issues and how best to respond to them.

Media literacy skills are therefore not only important for individuals, they are also vital for society.