How to promote Media Literacy: Consultation on recommendations for online platforms, broadcasters and services

Ofcom is today consulting on a set of recommendations designed to help a broad range of services to empower the public by giving them the skills and information needed to critically and safely engage with the content they see. We are today seeking views on our draft recommendations which set out a clear, ambitious and unified vision for how services can help people to navigate and thrive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Our recommendations have four cross-cutting aims at their heart:

• Services are designed to give people meaningful choice in how they engage with content. That means making inclusive design and policy choices right from the start.
• People are empowered to shape and control their own experience. Services should equip people with practical tools to manage and personalise their online experiences. We want to see them supporting parents and caregivers to guide younger users in an age-appropriate way and engaging third parties to extend the reach of their media literacy initiatives.
• People are supported to develop critical engagement skills, building trust and confidence. Services should help people to understand, interpret and critically assess the credibility of content they encounter, including by promoting relevant programming or educational content. We expect platforms to invest in media literacy campaigns, content and partnerships, including those which target underserved and diverse audiences.
• Continuous improvement in these areas through ongoing evaluation. Services should conduct and publish evaluations of the impacts of their design choices and initiatives.

We recognise that services vary in size and reach, and our proposed recommendations are designed with proportionality in mind. While these are not a set of mandatory rules, our recommendations represent what we consider to be ‘good practice’ to help shape services’ approach to promoting media literacy.

Responding to this consultation

Please submit responses using the response form no later than 5pm 8 December 2025.