Media Literacy (Communications and Digital Committee Report)
House of Lords · Grand Committee · 16 Mar 2026 · 27 speeches · Official Report
Motion to Take Note
Moved by
That the Grand Committee takes note of the Report from the Communications and Digital Committee Media literacy (3rd Report, HL Paper 163).
My Lords, it is a pleasure to open this debate on the report of the Communications and Digital Committee’s inquiry on media literacy. In doing so, I will focus particularly on national leadership, the responsibilities of technology platforms and delivery in schools. This inquiry was the first undertaken after I took over as chair of the committee in early 2025, and I place on record my thanks to all the members of the committee, our witnesses and our excellent committee team, who worked hard on the inquiry, the report and the communications around the publication. Media literacy is fundamental to a healthy democracy. An early inquiry by the House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee concluded in its report that: “In the digital world, our belief in what we see, hear and read is being distorted to the point at which we no longer know who or what to trust”. There is even more urgency now because rapid technological change, particularly the rise of social media and generative AI, has transformed how information is produced, distributed and consumed. One of the most striking consequences has been the growing dominance of online platforms and social media as primary news sources. Ofcom data from 2024 found that 71% of people consume news content via online providers, overtaking television news at 70%. This is accompanied by a steady decline in news consumption by TV, radio and newspapers. This shift changes what people see and how they see it. Online platform...
My Lords, before we start, I ask noble Lords to ensure that they stick to the five minutes’ speaking time. Although the time allowance is advisory, the Grand Committee may sit only until around 7.45 pm. We need to conclude the debate before then, and a vote is expected in the Chamber, so I ask noble Lords to stick to their time and end at five minutes.
Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone
My Lords, I will try to be mild, obedient, good and kind. Let me say how delighted I am to speak in this debate. I applaud the Communications and Digital Committee’s report on media literacy, and the splendid way in which the noble Baroness introduced today’s discussion. She had so many questions for the Minister that he will be pleased that I have decided to withdraw all my questions because they were all covered by her speech, which was so rigorous and thoughtful. This is a serious topic which discusses the depth and breadth of how we sustain a democracy today. The report has been written with diligence, professionalism and foresight. Committee members from all parts of the House have prepared a document which well merits scrutiny and, I hope, action. The report makes clear that a failure to prioritise media literacy presents a threat not merely to individuals but to the functioning of democracy. New technologies and social media algorithms have dramatically transformed the wider information environment, and many citizens are poorly equipped to navigate it. As the report says, less than one-third of adults are confident that they can identify AI-generated content-an alarming statistic when you consider the pace at which generative AI tools are advancing. This is not a marginal concern; it affects trust, safety and political discussion. I am sure that members of the committee will have seen the speech by the outgoing DG of the BBC to the Royal Television Society on the...
My Lords, when our committee published its report on media literacy last year, we used words such as “crisis” and “leadership vacuum”. They were not chosen lightly. One in four UK adults finds it difficult to distinguish true from false information online, one in three believed a fake news story was real and 42% of all crimes are now scam related. United Kingdom has slipped from 10th to 13th place in the European Media Literacy Index. The question before us is not whether the problem is serious-that is beyond doubt-but whether the Government’s response is adequate and whether progress made so far justifies confidence that it will be. When I was putting together my short but perfectly formed contribution, it was before we received the Minister’s letter of plans and actions, so I want to deal with that in a moment. I start where credit is genuinely due. As our chair mentioned, something has moved on the curriculum. The Curriculum and Assessment Review, published last November, identified media literacy as a priority. The Government accepted the recommendation to make citizenship education compulsory in primary schools, with financial media literacy embedded within it. The schools White Paper published last month recommits to embedding media literacy across the curriculum, with revised programmes of study expected by spring 2027 and teaching from September 2028. These are welcome steps and I do not dismiss them, but I must be candid with the Committee that warm words and future...
My Lords, I am proud to be a member of the Communications and Digital Committee, which produced this report. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, for focusing and steering us towards the important conclusions we reached. Following the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, I will focus on the significance of trusted news sources and how digital users can use them to cut a path to truth through the jungle of misinformation on the internet. The spread of AI has created as many problems as solutions. It is a blight on our society. Anyone can create an AI deepfake image at home in a few seconds. This has meant that misinformation and disinformation are everywhere and growing by the second. The problem has only been compounded by the use of AI systems as the main source of news for so many people. I have been worried by an impressive new study by European public service broadcasters, which found that there were issues with 45% of AI news summaries. For example, when using satirical source material, AI delivered it as the truth. It found the responses were often one-sided and did not provide the context for the user to understand the issue properly. Gemini even added words to direct quotes. The AI assistant struggled with fast-moving news stories and intricate timelines involving multiple actors. This report and many others highlight the unreliability of so many AI news sources. Now is the time to ensure that political energy is focused on promoting our trusted providers of...
My Lords, I contribute to this debate with a little temerity. Having only recently joined the Communications and Digital Committee, I was not present to hear any of the evidence or representations received prior to the preparation of what is undoubtedly a very comprehensive report. That being said, I congratulate those who were present and the committee on a very useful contribution to government and wider thinking on what is undoubtedly a major topic of the 21st century. The fact is that the creative industries contributed £124 billion in gross value to our economy in 2023 and supported 2.4 million jobs, while the AI sector itself contributed £11.8 billion to our economy in 2024 and now employs around 86,000 people. The growing strength of both industries underlies the emphasis placed by the Government in their AI O pportunities A ction P lan on resolving the uncertainty around intellectual property and reforming the UK text and data mining regime-TDM-which they have said is “hindering innovation and undermining our broader ambitions for AI, as well as the growth of our creative industries”. Their preferred approach is to adopt a commercial exception in the case of TDM, with an opt-out mechanism and associated transparency obligations. This would align the UK’s approach with that of the European Union, although, as the report sets out, it could provide risks in the protection of the creative industries. What is needed now more than ever is smart regulation that protects...
Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill
My Lords, I too served on the Select Committee that produced this excellent and timely report. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Keeley on her leadership and commend our recommendations to the Minister. Media literacy skills are key to protecting our democracy and the well-being of our society by ensuring that citizens can recognise misinformation and disinformation. Trust in news and institutions is dangerously low, yet audiences have access to ever-increasing volumes of content, whether accurate or spurious. The Government have a responsibility to ensure that their citizens, young and old, have the skills to think critically about the content they consume and create, both online and offline. As our report stated, it is not enough just to outsource media literacy to the regulator, Ofcom, which is tasked with implementing the important Online Safety Act. The Government must lead by appointing a senior Minister to oversee delivery across Whitehall by co-ordinating cross-departmental activity within education, public services and local government. The new working group, although welcome, is not enough. The online world touches every aspect of our lives and, with the advent of generative artificial intelligence, we must be better prepared to understand how we are affected by what we read. It is not just news, but how we access public services such as health; our employment, entertainment and relationships are all impacted. That is why the committee called for a public...
My Lords, it is an honour to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Healy, and I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, on her leadership in producing this report by the Communications and Digital Committee, on which I serve. I declare my interest as a long-time journalist, including as editor of the Evening Standard for seven years. In the time available, I will highlight one key element of the media literacy report, which is fundamental to the future of media literacy-news. Where do we get our news from and can we rely on it? How can young people best be taught to analyse news information, and especially to identify misinformation and disinformation? TikTok and YouTube are the most-used news sources for 12 to 15 year-olds, but where can the truth be found? The majority of Britons still turn to the BBC for news. For generations, the BBC was trusted to present news accurately and impartially. I fear that that is no longer the case. There are of course many examples every day of great and brave journalism on the BBC, but all the good is washed away by outrightly bad journalism characterised by distortion, bias and inaccuracy. When the BBC’s failings are exposed, their executives are begrudging to admit their errors. There are numerous recent examples of the failings of the BBC that have had far-reaching consequences-the Trump edit, for example, in a recent “Panorama”-yet when the BBC’s most senior executives were told about the distortion of Trump’s speech, they hoped that no...
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, for securing this important debate and the committee on an excellent report. As ever, I declare my interest as a teacher. The report talks about thinking critically about the content that we create and consume both online and offline, because there is a problem: when we talk about media literacy, we instantly think of AI and deepfakes, but offline is important as well. Most people are aware of the ability of AI to produce remarkably realistic media. In fact, there are plenty of people who have randomly filmed remarkable events-perhaps their cat biting a shark-only to have it dismissed as AI. The critical point to understand is that unless we witness an event at first hand, everything that we look at has been edited by other people. Some examples are more obvious than others. I was at boarding school in the 1980s during the miners’ strike. We got to see all the main national newspapers and would read at least the front page of each of them. There were different stories in the Mirror to those in the Sun , which would usually have a picture of Arthur Scargill doing Hitler salutes on the front page. But we have usually read the papers that reflect our beliefs and have had them reinforced by what we read long before algorithms. This has been going on since mankind first learned to communicate. There is a theory that Harold was not actually hit in the eye with an arrow; it is just a clumsy darn on the “Bayeux Tapestry”....
My Lords, it is a pleasure to take part in this debate. In doing so, I declare my interests as set out in the register: as an adviser on emerging technologies, not least AI, to Endava plc, the Crown Estate, Submer Ltd and Simmons and Simmons LLP. It is a pleasure and an honour to take part in this debate, as it was to be a member of your Lordships’ Communications and Digital Committee, so ably led by the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, who opened this debate with erudition and eloquence, setting out all the key recommendations of our report’s findings. In many ways our report could be summarised in one phrase: critical thinking. It is important to so many of the issues currently facing all of us, not least young people, and is vital to our continued flourishing and humanity. There are at least three reasons why media literacy matters today. The first is democracy. Trust is in crisis and collapsing under a barrage of misinformation and disinformation. We highlighted that in the Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee report in 2020, and it has gone only one way since then. The second reason is economic. We have an epidemic of fraud, mostly perpetrated on platforms, yet, in the Government’s recent fraud strategy, platforms are not included in APP reimbursement; I ask the Minister why. The third reason is our very being in society. When AI is all around us, media literacy must flow like a golden thread through us all and every interaction that we have. Those are three...
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Keeley on the comprehensive way that she introduced our committee’s report on media literacy, of which committee I am lucky to be a member. I also welcome the Government’s media literacy action plan that was published today. The committee’s report covers considerable ground but, in my time today, I want to focus on media literacy in schools. In doing so, I must remind the Committee of my interests, especially chairing the board of trustees at E-ACT and my work with Pearson Education. Last year, I carried out research into how we might teach media literacy to young people. As part of that work, I met a Cambridge professor who described the rise of disinformation as a war between autocracy and democracy. This may sound dramatic, but it captures why I have devoted considerable time to this issue. There has always been the disinformation of propaganda and the misinformation of gossip and tittle-tattle, but what we face now is fundamentally different. These age-old problems are massively amplified by AI creating credible fake content. We saw Cambridge Analytica’s interference in the Brexit referendum. We see foreign interference in elections through disinformation bots on social media. Technology has transformed the scale and sophistication of the threat to our democracy. In my research, I also met the Guardian Foundation, the Financial Times , the Economist , the BBC and others. Collectively, they offer a considerable body of support...
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, and her committee for this remarkably informed and necessary report. I say so as a former schoolteacher and teacher of religious studies, a former ITV and BBC political journalist and now chairman of a major London university and a professor of leadership at a business school in the US. The issues contained in this report absolutely matter. I agree with the report’s statement that media literacy is a vital life skill and with the response of the Government that media literacy and digital inclusion go hand in hand as individuals need the skills and confidence to engage safely, critically and effectively in the digital world. But there is one category of citizen excluded from consideration by this report and the Government: people in prison. Currently, there are around 90,000 men and women-it is largely men and a few thousand women, because they do not misbehave as much-in our prison system. This morning, I made my third visit in eight days to the same prison in south London where I and my network of 35 visitors have a regular commitment. In the 120 visits I have made in the last 10 years to prisoners in the south of England, I have seen a whole cohort of people whom we have a major responsibility for but no commitment to around media literacy. In fact, there is no mention of them in this report or the Government’s response. Whether we like it or not, the truth is that all those in prison, with a few exceptions, will come out...
Baroness Caine of Kentish Town
My Lords, as a recently joined member of the Communications and Digital Committee, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Keeley on her leadership, other committee members on the report and their contributions today, and other noble Lords who have supported the issue over many years and shared their wisdom and expertise in this debate. The Government’s choice to publish their media literacy action plan as the first step in their strategy to develop a safe, informed digital nation today is a positive response to all that mutual work and an important step in achieving a more aligned and cross-departmental approach to this crucial issue. Unfortunately, alongside the noble Lord, Lord Storey, I spotted it only this afternoon so it somewhat impeded my speech. Much has already been said and I do not wish to repeat the well-made points already made. I will therefore focus on issues that have not been touched on and put some questions to the Minister. I declare an interest as a previous chair of Goldsmiths, University of London, and current chair of Camden Council’s STEAM project, which brings together all the primary and secondary schools and youth services in the borough, working with local employers such as Google and the Roundhouse and anchor institutions such as the Crick to progress young people from all backgrounds in high-skill sectors. Because of that, I look at these developments from the point of view of those we are seeking to support-the students, young people and...
My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, and the Communications and Digital Committee on their timely report, which is clear-eyed about the scale of the challenge before us. The report makes a compelling case for media literacy being no longer a specialist skill but a fundamental requirement for democratic participation. The concern is urgent. As we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, less than one-third of adults are confident that they can identify AI-generated content. Further, a 2024 Ofcom survey found that 52% of UK adults now use social media as a news source. That combination of mass dependence on social platforms and mass difficulty in evaluating what appears on them is precisely the vulnerability that the committee is right to address. The report highlighted that provision has been uneven and fragile. As the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, said, media literacy in schools has at times been limited to a one-off or an annual assembly, or confined to optional subjects, making provision a postcode lottery. Outside school, it has fallen largely to underfunded third-sector organisations with no long-term strategic vision. The committee was right to conclude that only the Government can drive real progress. The curriculum and assessment review, published in November 2025, and today’s media literacy action plan, recommended strengthening media literacy in English and citizenship and introducing a...
My Lords, I apologise for intervening in the gap, but I very much wanted to congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, and her committee and speak to a report that is both is both timely and very necessary. In doing so, I declare my AI interests as in the register. We are faced with a landscape of algorithmic manipulation, proliferating deepfakes, a torrent of disinformation and, of course, online fraud. The committee is right: a failure to prioritise media literacy is a threat not just to individuals but to social cohesion and democracy itself. In the era of generative AI, media literacy is, as the committee makes clear, a requirement for modern citizenship. Our current approach is indeed fragmented and underresourced and lacks strategic vision. Ofcom’s own evidence, highlighted by the committee, shows little improvement in core skills over six years. In that context, the Government’s claim in their response that they and Ofcom have met the mounting scale of the challenge is simply not credible. Like my noble friend Lord Storey, I welcome the completed curriculum and assessment review, which commits the Government to publishing revised national curriculum content by spring 2027. However, as the committee recommends, media literacy should be embedded across the curriculum and teachers should receive sustained support. This should arrive earlier. As the committee urges, we need media literacy to be prioritised across government, not bolted on at the margins. I very much...
My Lords, this has been an encouraging debate, although the Government’s response to our report was a little last-minute, as has been said. My noble friend Lord Storey did not even know that we now have a Minister to cover this. That was not his fault: rather, it was a matter of the delivery of the action plan. My skin in the game goes back even further. I was on the Puttnam committee that gave pre-legislative scrutiny to the Communications Act 2003-the Act that created Ofcom-and one of the responsibilities we wrote into Ofcom’s mandate was education on media literacy. I think it is fair to say that Ofcom had other things to do in the first 20 years of its life: nevertheless, media literacy was something important, and the technical, social and economic changes that have taken place since 2003 have only increased its importance. When I was not embroiled in student politics, I was at UCL studying economic and social history. One of the things that always stuck in my mind was the famous Lord Sherbrooke quote after the 1867 Reform Act that we must now set about educating our masters-the realisation that an extended electorate was safer if it was an educated electorate. We have almost the same problem now in reverse. We have a technology that can inform that electorate and a real need for the electorate to understand the various parts of the technology that gives them information now. In my more pessimistic moments, I think that the threat to stable government, democracy and the...
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Keeley, for introducing this debate. I thank her and her fellow members of your Lordships’ Communications and Digital Committee for their hard work in producing this report on media literacy. The opening sentence of the report puts it starkly: “Social cohesion is at risk and democracy itself is threatened by inadequate media literacy”. In looking at the annunciator and keeping a close eye on the time throughout this debate, I noticed that, at the moment, the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Stevenage, is making a Statement on social cohesion in the Chamber. In some ways, it is unfortunate that we have such a clash, because I know that the noble Lords who have spoken in this debate would have made useful contributions. Perhaps that makes the point about this being an activity that engages many government departments; I am sure that the Minister will ensure that the comments made in this debate are shared with the noble Baroness and his colleagues across government. The way in which we all consume and interact with the news is changing rapidly. However, although that has opened up a world of choice, it has also created, as noble Lords have said, personalised echo chambers where complex algorithms, rather than thoughtful and experienced news editors, are increasingly determining what we see. We cannot rely on what we read or trust that what is before our eyes is trustworthy and balanced. Artificial intelligence is playing...
My Lords, in view of the limited time that we have, I shall try to speak as quickly as I can to allow the committee’s chair to sum up. I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed such thoughtful and compelling insights this afternoon. I thank my noble friend Lady Keeley for securing this timely debate. The quality of the discussion reflects something on which I believe the Grand Committee is united: media literacy is now a foundational skill. It underpins people’s ability to navigate the digital world with confidence, resilience and independence. Media literacy brings clear benefits to individuals and to society as a whole. It gives people the confidence to understand the information they encounter, recognise what is trustworthy and make choices that support their well-being. It helps parents guide their children with clarity and reassurance. It empowers young people to explore ideas safely and participate in learning and creativity. It supports adults of all ages to feel more capable and in control as they navigate an increasingly digital environment. A media-literate society is also harder to mislead. It is better able to engage constructively in public debate and more confident in using new technologies. In short, it contributes to a more resilient, more connected society in which everybody can take part. Our ambition is therefore very clear. We want every person in the United Kingdom to benefit from strong media literacy skills and to feel informed, confident...
My Lords, there is a Division in the House, so the Committee will adjourn for 10 minutes. There was a medical emergency in the Chamber earlier, which is why everything is out of sync. We have a hard finish at 8 pm, so if noble Lords vote swiftly come back, we might start before the 10 minutes is up so that we can complete.
Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.
My Lords, before we were interrupted, several noble Lords had asked about social cohesion. On 9 March, MHCLG published the Protecting What Matters strategy-which the noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, mentioned and which was the subject of the Statement during dinner break business this evening-a cross-government package of measures to support integration, strengthen social cohesion and counter extremism. Media literacy is referenced as a supporting element within that wider plan. That is why it is embedded in the digital inclusion action plan and supported through the £11.9 million Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund and its associated committee, chaired by my noble friend Lady Armstrong. This funding backs innovative projects delivered through trusted local settings, particularly reaching vulnerable and excluded groups. We agree with my noble friend that technology platforms also have an important role to play. That is why companies such as Google, through Be Internet Legends, and Meta, through Get Digital, are already reaching millions of people. Ofcom’s strategy rightly places collaboration with platforms at its heart, including through media literacy by design. The Government welcome Ofcom’s consultation on how platforms, broadcasters and streaming services can go further, with recommendations expected in spring 2026. The Government also recognise the importance of sustainable funding for media literacy. However, we do not believe a separate levy is the right approach. Media...
I thank my noble friend the Minister and all noble Lords who have spoken in this wide-ranging debate, with some excellent questions. I thank the Minister for saying that he will later answer any questions to which we have not had an answer. With a subject as wide-ranging as media literacy, it is difficult to cover everything. I take on board the points noble Lords made about post-16 youth services being an important area, as well as people in prisons. We had quite a rush towards the end of our inquiry to fit in with the timing of the Francis review. Given what happened in that review and that we now have the media literacy action plan, we were probably right to go with that timing, rather than taking longer. It is always difficult. I welcome the emphasis on critical thinking and thinking independently, which was one of the key things to come out strongly in the debate, as well as the discussion on visual literacy, which we cannot forget. The need for Ofcom to update its definition came up again and again, so we should perhaps keep on that. On the subject of libraries, which were mentioned, we must remember that so many libraries are now run by volunteers, so let us not think that they can take on extra responsibilities without the funding that goes with that. I end by welcoming the wide support for the committee and its report.
Motion agreed.
Committee adjourned at 7.59 pm.