CHILDREN ARE NEVER TOO YOUNG TO LEARN MEDIA LITERACY SKILLS. WE JUST NEED TO START TEACHING THEM

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Tonight my daughter, aged six, wanted to read the nursery rhyme Georgie Porgie to her younger brother, aged 3. The night before she had asked me to read it to her and we had an important conversation about how we can learn good lessons from stories with negative messages.

You can read more about that conversation here https://steemit.com/philosophy/@sowhat/when-bedtime-stories-give-you-nightmares.

My daughter looked over in my direction (my kids were on my daughter's bed and I was sitting on my son's bed). She was looking at me for guidance. She knew I didn't like the story so she wanted to gauge my reaction to her suggestion that she was going to read the story her little brother.

ME: That’s a lovely idea that you want to read to her brother. Do you remember how we talked about how some stories are about things that make us sad or we don't like, and how it's important that we think about how we feel when we read things?

DAUGHTER: Yip.

ME: Well, your brother doesn’t know that there are some good stories and some not so good stories. So if you want to read Georgie Porgie to him he might think that what Georgie Porgie is doing is OK. So it's important that we explain to him so he knows.

DAUGHTER: Oh, OK.

original image of SoWhat? Not to be used without permission

I could see my daughter taking a moment to think about what I said. I sat quietly on my son’s bed with another book and watched as she read Georgie Porgie to her brother.

When she had finished reading she explained that there are some good stories and some not so good stories. She explained that Georgie Porgie wasn't doing the right thing because he's not allowed to kiss people without asking. She said that the girl should go and tell someone she trusts straight away.

The story of Georgie Porgie had created a learning opportunity for my children.

We had two really important conversations about consent and the story allowed me to give my daughter the tools to be a critical reader. She was then able to 'pay it forward' by showing her brother how to apply the tools. In doing so, she demonstrated that she knew how to be a critical media consumer, and that children are never too young to learn media literacy skills.

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BY EMPOWERING CHILDREN WITH MEDIA LITERACY SKILLS WE ARE SETTING THEM UP FOR SAFE MEDIA PRACTICES AS CRITICAL CONSUMERS.

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THIS ARTICLE IS AN ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION

Author: Melissa Gould, Ph.D (AUT), MCS, BCS (Hons), BCS.

Dr Melissa Gould holds a Ph.D from the School of Communications at Auckland University of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand. She worked as a Media and Communications Lecturer at the School, and now works as an independent researcher and writer. Her primary research areas include media communication theory and cultural studies that examine religion, gender, religion, and childhood.

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