What This Bill Does
This bill directs the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to establish a grant program that gives money to schools, libraries, and nonprofit organizations to teach media literacy and digital citizenship. Media literacy means learning to find accurate information, critically analyze media, understand how technology affects your life, and protect yourself from harmful online content.
##
Who It Affects
- State education agencies
- Local school districts
- Public libraries
- Nonprofit organizations focused on education, child development, or media literacy
- Students from kindergarten through grade 12
- Teachers and school librarians
- Parents and community members
##
Key Provisions
- The Assistant Secretary must establish a grant program to award money to eligible organizations to carry out media literacy activities. (Sec. 4(a))
- State education agencies receiving grants must create a media literacy advisory council to provide recommendations about digital citizenship guidelines and identify ways to teach media literacy in public schools, including for students with disabilities. (Sec. 4(c)(1)(A)(i))
- States must develop and publish media literacy guidelines for kindergarten through grade 12 that focus on research skills, critical thinking, technology operations, understanding media messages, and the ability to create media responsibly. (Sec. 4(c)(1)(C))
- Local school districts receiving grants can incorporate media literacy into existing classes, hire librarians or specialists to teach media literacy, and provide professional development funding for teachers. (Sec. 4(c)(2))
- Organizations receiving grants must submit reports within one year describing their activities and whether those activities worked. (Sec. 4(d)(1))
##
What Changes
If passed, schools and libraries will have federal funding available to start or expand media literacy programs. Students will gain instruction on how to identify false information, think critically about what they read online, understand how technology influences their behavior, and make safer choices on social media and digital platforms.
##
Important Definitions
- **Digital citizenship**: The ability to safely and ethically use technology, create media responsibly, and participate in technology-related aspects of politics, economics, and culture. (Sec. 3(2))
- **Media literacy**: The ability to access accurate information, critically analyze media, evaluate credibility of information, make educated decisions based on media, use technology, reflect on how media affects your life, and protect yourself from dangerous online content including child exploitation material and content promoting illegal drugs or self-harm. (Sec. 3(5))
- **Eligible entity**: A state education agency, local school district, public library, or qualified nonprofit organization. (Sec. 3(3))
- **Qualified nonprofit organization**: An organization recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt with a mission to improve childhood education, development, or media literacy. (Sec. 3(6))
##
Effective Date
Not specified in bill text
II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. 394
To promote digital citizenship and media literacy.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 13, 2023
Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself, Mr. BENNET, Ms. SMITH, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, and
Mr. WHITEHOUSE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice
and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor-
tation
A BILL
To promote digital citizenship and media literacy.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Digital Citizenship and
4
Media Literacy Act’’.
5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
6
Congress finds the following:
7
(1) People in the United States rely on infor-
8
mation from mass media, social media, and digital
9
media to make decisions about all aspects of social,
10
economic, and political life, including products and
11
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
2
•S 394 IS
services consumption, employment, career and pro-
1
fessional development, family and leisure choices,
2
health and wellness, and democratic engagement.
3
Ensuring that people in the United States possess
4
the skills to make these informed decisions based on
5
media begins early in life.
6
(2) Adversaries from Russia, China, and Iran
7
are using information warfare to influence democ-
8
racies across the world, and terrorist organizations
9
often use digital communications to recruit mem-
10
bers. The United States can fight these influences
11
by ensuring that citizens of the United States pos-
12
sess the necessary skills to identify disinformation
13
and misinformation and think critically about their
14
digital activities.
15
(3) Media literacy education has proven critical
16
to allies of the United States in building national re-
17
silience to foreign disinformation campaigns. Coun-
18
tries like Estonia, Finland, and Ukraine have devel-
19
oped and implemented successful media literacy edu-
20
cation programs in schools that have helped counter
21
Russian disinformation campaigns. The United
22
States has also invested in and promoted media lit-
23
eracy education abroad, including in the Baltics.
24
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
3
•S 394 IS
(4) Following Russia’s increased aggression to-
1
wards Ukraine and the West, and Russia’s invasion
2
of Ukraine, media literacy skills have been important
3
in ensuring Ukrainians and citizens of Western al-
4
lied countries are not influenced by Russian
5
disinformation.
6
(5) In order to build similar national resilience
7
against foreign disinformation in the United States,
8
Congress has recommended investing in media lit-
9
eracy education.
10
(6) The bipartisan and bicameral Cyberspace
11
Solarium Commission’s 2020 report recommended
12
that the United States invest in media literacy, writ-
13
ing that ‘‘[b]y promoting modern civics education
14
and digital literacy programs, the U.S. Government
15
can assist in enhancing the average American’s abil-
16
ity to discern the trustworthiness of online content,
17
and thereby reduce the impact of malicious foreign
18
cyber-enabled information campaigns’’, and con-
19
cluded that Congress should authorize a grant pro-
20
gram ‘‘to improve digital citizenship and to incor-
21
porate effective digital literacy curricula in American
22
classrooms at the K–12 level and beyond’’.
23
(7) Similarly, the Select Committee on Intel-
24
ligence of the Senate stated, in a bipartisan report
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
4
•S 394 IS
released during the 116th Congress, ‘‘Addressing the
1
challenge of disinformation in the long-term will ulti-
2
mately need to be tackled by an informed and dis-
3
cerning population of citizens who are both alert to
4
the threat and armed with the critical thinking skills
5
necessary to protect against malicious influence.’’.
6
The Committee then recommended that a ‘‘public
7
initiative—propelled by Federal funding but led in
8
large part by state and local education institutions—
9
focused on building media literacy from an early age
10
would help build long-term resilience to foreign ma-
11
nipulation of our democracy’’.
12
(8) Media literacy and digital citizenship edu-
13
cation also empowers young people and is critical to
14
improving their health and safety, preventing
15
cyberbullying, and enabling young people to make
16
informed decisions about products and services, in-
17
cluding advertisements and controlled substances.
18
(9) Social media and other online activities have
19
been shown to have serious negative impacts on the
20
mental and physical health of young people. Many
21
studies have found that media literacy education is
22
one of the most successful strategies for countering
23
body image issues and eating disorders in children.
24
The National Eating Disorders Association, in part-
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
5
•S 394 IS
nership with California State University, Northridge,
1
published a Digital Media Literacy toolkit to help
2
students, including high school students, learn skills
3
to think critically about body images and the online
4
content they see.
5
(10) Education and childhood development ex-
6
perts, as well as academic and medical researchers,
7
have recommended that a key method for preventing
8
and countering the negative impacts described in
9
paragraph (9) is to teach media literacy skills to
10
young people beginning early in their education.
11
(11) A successful and inclusive media literacy
12
program must be directed at students beginning in
13
kindergarten and should continue throughout the
14
completion of postsecondary education. Media lit-
15
eracy education must be inclusive and accessible for
16
all students, including multilingual students, stu-
17
dents with limited proficiency in English, and stu-
18
dents with disabilities. Learning to critically analyze
19
and create media is a lifelong process that can be
20
developed by integrating media literacy competencies
21
into academic curriculum across content areas and
22
disciplines.
23
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
24
In this Act:
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
6
•S 394 IS
(1) ASSISTANT SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Assist-
1
ant Secretary’’ means the Assistant Secretary of
2
Commerce for Communications and Information.
3
(2) DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP.—The term ‘‘digital
4
citizenship’’ means the ability to—
5
(A) safely, responsibly, and ethically use
6
communication technologies and digital infor-
7
mation technology tools and platforms;
8
(B) create and share media content using
9
principles of social and civic responsibility and
10
with awareness of the legal and ethical issues
11
involved; and
12
(C) participate in the political, economic,
13
social, and cultural aspects of life related to
14
technology, communications, and the digital
15
world by consuming and creating digital con-
16
tent, including media.
17
(3) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-
18
ty’’ means—
19
(A) a State educational agency;
20
(B) a local educational agency;
21
(C) a public library; or
22
(D) a qualified nonprofit organization.
23
(4) ESEA DEFINITIONS.—The terms ‘‘child
24
with a disability’’, ‘‘local educational agency’’, ‘‘State
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
7
•S 394 IS
educational agency’’, ‘‘specialized instructional sup-
1
port personnel’’, and ‘‘universal design for learning’’
2
have the meanings given those terms in section 8101
3
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
4
1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
5
(5) MEDIA LITERACY.—The term ‘‘media lit-
6
eracy’’ means the ability to—
7
(A) access relevant and accurate informa-
8
tion through media in a variety of forms;
9
(B) critically analyze media content and
10
the influences of different forms of media;
11
(C) evaluate the comprehensiveness, rel-
12
evance, credibility, authority, and accuracy of
13
information;
14
(D) make educated decisions based on in-
15
formation obtained from media and digital
16
sources;
17
(E) operate various forms of technology
18
and digital tools;
19
(F) reflect on how the use of media and
20
technology may affect private and public life;
21
and
22
(G) protect oneself from online content
23
that presents a clear risk to health and safety,
24
including child sexual abuse material and con-
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
8
•S 394 IS
tent promoting illegal drugs, self-harm, or eat-
1
ing disorders.
2
(6) QUALIFIED
NONPROFIT
ORGANIZATION.—
3
The term ‘‘qualified nonprofit organization’’ means
4
an organization that—
5
(A) is described in paragraph (3) or (4) of
6
section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of
7
1986 and is exempt from taxation under section
8
501(a) of that Code; and
9
(B) has a mission to improve childhood
10
education, childhood development, or media lit-
11
eracy.
12
SEC. 4. GRANT PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.
13
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Assistant Secretary shall es-
14
tablish a program to promote media literacy, through
15
which the Assistant Secretary shall award grants to eligi-
16
ble entities to enable those eligible entities to carry out
17
the activities described in subsection (c).
18
(b) APPLICATION.—An eligible entity that desires a
19
grant under this section shall submit an application to the
20
Assistant Secretary at such time and in such manner as
21
the Assistant Secretary may require, including, at a min-
22
imum—
23
(1) a description of the activities the eligible en-
24
tity intends to carry out with the grant funds;
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
9
•S 394 IS
(2) an estimate of the costs associated with
1
such activities; and
2
(3) such other information and assurances as
3
the Assistant Secretary may require.
4
(c) USE OF FUNDS.—
5
(1) STATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES.—
6
(A) IN GENERAL.—An eligible entity that
7
is a State educational agency receiving a grant
8
under this section shall use grant funds to
9
carry out one or more of the following activities:
10
(i) Creating and supporting a media
11
literacy advisory council to—
12
(I)
provide
recommendations
13
about digital citizenship and media lit-
14
eracy guidelines;
15
(II) identify barriers and oppor-
16
tunities for implementing media lit-
17
eracy in kindergarten through grade
18
12 in public schools in the State for
19
all students, including students who
20
are children with disabilities;
21
(III) identify best practices and
22
effective models for media literacy
23
education,
including
incorporating
24
universal design for learning and pro-
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
10
•S 394 IS
viding additional accommodations for
1
students who are children with dis-
2
abilities when needed;
3
(IV) identify existing models of
4
curriculum and existing policies in dif-
5
ferent States that are aimed at over-
6
coming the barriers identified in sub-
7
clause (II);
8
(V) gather data or conduct re-
9
search to assess the media literacy
10
and digital citizenship competencies of
11
students, teachers, or specialized in-
12
structional support personnel;
13
(VI) submit a report to the State
14
educational agency containing findings
15
and recommendations regarding the
16
items identified under this clause; and
17
(VII) annually update those find-
18
ings and recommendations.
19
(ii) Assisting local educational agen-
20
cies in the development of units of instruc-
21
tion on media literacy, either as a new sub-
22
ject or as a part of the existing curriculum.
23
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
11
•S 394 IS
(iii) Assisting local educational agen-
1
cies in developing means of evaluating stu-
2
dent learning in media literacy.
3
(iv) Assisting local educational agen-
4
cies in developing or providing professional
5
development for teachers that relates to
6
media literacy.
7
(B) MEDIA
LITERACY
ADVISORY
COUN-
8
CIL.—
9
(i) MEMBERS.—The media literacy
10
advisory council described in subparagraph
11
(A)(i) shall include experts in media lit-
12
eracy, including academic experts, individ-
13
uals from nonprofit organizations, individ-
14
uals with expertise in education for stu-
15
dents who are children with disabilities,
16
teachers, librarians, representatives from
17
parent organizations, educators, adminis-
18
trators, students, and other stakeholders.
19
(ii)
DIVERSITY
OF
REPRESENTA-
20
TION.—Such membership shall include rep-
21
resentation from rural and urban local
22
educational agencies, small and large
23
schools, high- and low-resource schools,
24
teachers of students with disabilities, and
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00011
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\S394.IS
S394
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
12
•S 394 IS
schools in communities from diverse lin-
1
guistic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.
2
(C) GUIDELINES.—
3
(i) IN GENERAL.—A State educational
4
agency that creates a media literacy advi-
5
sory council under subparagraph (A)(i)
6
shall, only after consideration of the find-
7
ings and recommendations described in
8
subclauses (I) and (VI) of that subpara-
9
graph, develop and publish on the State
10
educational agency website inclusive digital
11
citizenship and media literacy guidelines
12
for students in kindergarten through grade
13
12 in public schools in the State.
14
(ii) REQUIREMENTS.—The guidelines
15
described in clause (i) shall be designed to
16
develop media literacy and digital citizen-
17
ship
competencies
by
promoting
stu-
18
dents’—
19
(I) research and information flu-
20
ency;
21
(II) critical thinking and prob-
22
lem-solving skills;
23
(III) technology operations and
24
concepts;
25
VerDate Sep 11 2014
04:58 Mar 02, 2023
Jkt 039200
PO 00000
Frm 00012
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS
[Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]