In July 2021, the Government published the Online Media Literacy Strategy, which set out its plans to improve national media literacy capabilities by supporting the media literacy sector to undertake activity in a more effective, wide-reaching, and coordinated way.

The Government committed to publishing annual action plans each financial year until 2024/25, detailing Government-led initiatives to meet the ambition of the strategy. The Government published the Year 1 Action Plan (2021/22) alongside the strategy in July 2021. It has now published a document reporting on its progress on the Year 1 Action Plan (2021/22) and setting out the Year 2 Action Plan for the financial year 2022/23.

The Strategy aims to help the vulnerable and those who are digitally excluded or from lower socio-economic backgrounds to navigate the internet safely and teach them to spot falsities online.

Under Phase 2, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will spend £2.5 million to advance the plan through the next year including on training, research and providing expert advice. This includes a new Media Literacy Taskforce featuring experts from a range of disciplines and a boost to the Media Literacy Fund, which the Government says gives teachers and local service providers the skills they need to teach people to improve their critical thinking of what they see online. To access the report on Year 1 and the plans for Year 2, click here.