Encouraging our teens to practice media literacy online equips them to navigate their digital world for God’s glory and their good.
When my older children were in fifth grade, their teacher asked them to evaluate a web site that wanted to ban dihydrogen monoxide, a “colorless, odorless, tasteless” substance that “kills uncounted thousands of people every year.” After a vigorous classroom debate over the ban, their teacher revealed that dihydrogen monoxide was nothing more than water, described by its chemical systematic name.
I wish I could say that the gullibility of my children’s classmates—and, I admit, my children themselves—was the childish naivete of tweens. But a 2019 Stanford study found that high school students across America lacked basic skills of digital evaluation. Two-thirds couldn’t differentiate between ads and news, even with “Sponsored Content” labels; 52% believed a fake video without checking it first; 96% failed to consider corporate ties that weakened a website’s credibility; and most tended to accept web sites at face value.
Why care about media literacy online?
As our teens increasingly spend time online, media literacy—the ability to critically assess the content and platforms of mass communication—has become even more essential. Media undeniably shapes how we see ourselves and our world. But the digital content our teens consume often tell a story that is misleading at best or, at worst, patently false. How that content is delivered—the “medium,” or platform—also shapes how teens process and understand content. The very design of social media, for example, plays a large role in spreading misinformation online. Media literacy not only impacts how our children perceive themselves and their world, but can also shape their feelings, desires, and values.
Why is this relevant for us? As Christians, we believe that truth matters. John 14:6 states that God is truth. God also values truth: lying lips are an abomination to Him (Prov. 12:22). He calls His followers to base our reality on truth—that is, on God and His view of all things—and to be discerning as to what is truth and what isn’t. We are to “see to it that no one takes [us] captive by philosophy and empty deceit” (Col. 2:8) and think on what is true, lovely, and of good report (Phil. 4:8). Discerning God’s truth fosters the well-being of our mind, body, and soul and, as we flourish and image His true and wise nature, gives God glory.
As Christian parents, we have a role to play in helping our children grow in their discernment of what they consume online. We must ask, what is discipling our children online? How is it shaping their appetites and worldview? And how can we equip them to “distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14)?
How do we help our teens grow in media literacy online?
Fortunately, we have a growing number of resources to help our children grow in digital discernment. Axis, a Christian ministry for parents of teens, recently released a video-based Media Literacy and Discernment course for parents and teens. The National Association for Media Literacy Education also provides, among other materials, key questions to ask when analyzing media experiences. Poynter’s MediaWise program offers a free video course on navigating digital information and, as part of the program, the Stanford History Education Group developed a free Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum for teens, including a helpful, one-page guide to discerning reliable information online. News literacy resources are also available in bite-sized and longer-curriculum formats for students.
With the stakes so high and so many available resources, where do we begin? I’d like to suggest three places to start:
1. Ask “why:” Encourage your child to know their digital platform and what’s behind their media.
Understanding the media selection process—how a digital platform decides what content to deliver to the end user—is an essential first step to media literacy. Encourage your teen to ask the “why” question: Why is this post on my social media feed? Why did my app suggest that I would like this particular song? Why did this reporter decide to write this news story?
The reality is, digital media companies are not just seeking to provide your teen with content. Because they make money by maximizing user attention, they deploy increasingly sophisticated design techniques to keep users’ eyes glued to their offerings. (The Center for Humane Technology has a helpful Youth Toolkit explaining these processes.) Money isn’t always the end goal, either: apps also sell access to other companies who want to influence user behavior or opinions. After scrupulously monitoring and analyzing your child’s behavior, and by exploiting principles of behavioral science and psychology, these algorithms deliver targeted content designed to keep your child on their platform for as long as possible.
This isn’t just true of video games and social media platforms, which are notorious for using powerful persuasive technologies. Since the “yellow journalism” days of the 19th century, news media companies have long recognized that provocative and disturbing headlines are more likely to grab our attention. Recent research also confirm that negative news drive online news consumption and are re-posted more on social media than positive ones. Our teens need to know that the headlines coloring their world can be less about newsworthiness and more about a platform’s reward structure that not only skews negative but, as the next section mentions, skews false, too.
2. Get curious: SIFT what you’re reading and seeing online.
Digital literacy expert Michael Caulfield has developed the helpful acronym “SIFT” to help evaluate what we see online: stop, investigate the source, find trusted coverage, and trace to the original source:
- “Stop” means not believing what you see at face value. It includes exercising click restraint by not automatically choosing the first result when searching online, and not sharing information they haven’t verified yet—false news travels six times faster on social media than true news content!
- To “investigate” the source, we want our teens to determine what they’re reading before they read it. Where is it coming from? What is the creator’s expertise and goal in presenting the information? Is it a news article or an opinion piece? Is there product placement or another kind of advertisement in disguise? Discerning between facts and opinion also include statistics, which can appear definitive but actually be misleading.
- “Find” refers to the value of reading laterally: Instead of staying on a web site—judging its credibility based on spelling errors, sleek graphics, or a “.org” domain, for example—turn to the broader web and look to other, reliable sources to verify the credibility of the site. A lateral search of “dihydrogen monoxide” would have easily shown my children that the site was talking about water and that its claimed dangers, while technically true, were grossly distorted!
- “Trace” involves going upstream to the original source to understand if the claim was fairly represented. A video excerpt may be taken out of context, or a quote exaggerated. We want our teens to understand not just the text, but the subtext and context of what they see online.
3. Seek—and rest—in God’s wisdom.
As we encourage media literacy among our children, let’s also pray for and exhort them to seek God’s wisdom.No amount of knowledge or information can compare with the truth found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is wisdom incarnate (1 Cor. 1:30), and he alone offers the wisdom that gives meaning, life, hope, and direction. In a world of deepfakes, conspiracy theories, and Instagram filters, his wisdom anchors us in the truest reality.
God’s wisdom also means we, and our teens, can rest in a world of ceaseless online information. Our digital environment today reminds me of 2 Timothy 4:3: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” It can be frightening to realize that our teens have near-instant access to all kinds of content, often run by platforms keenly able and incentivized to exploit their particular psyche and keep them clicking and scrolling.
But the truth of God’s Word frees us from being gripped by fear of today’s (and tomorrow’s!) online dangers. In his goodness, God has not only sovereignly ordained our children to grow up in this digital age (Acts 17:26), but he has also equipped his followers with everything they need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). He meets us with abundant grace and steadfast love in our failures and mistakes. He is more powerful than the most persuasive technologies. And he will ultimately restore all things, redeeming even the most distorted technologies our teens may be using today (Rev. 21). Let’s rest in those promises as we disciple our youth with the wisdom of God.
For more gospel-centered parenting resources, check out Rooted’s Family Discipleship Curriculum.
