N.J. Is About to Make Kids More Media-Savvy. Every State Should Follow Suit.
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In this op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Julie Scelfo endorses a bipartisan New Jersey bill requiring K-12 media-literacy instruction and urges other states to pass similar legislation. She argues children are especially susceptible to social-media algorithms and online misinformation because their capacity for self-regulation and critical evaluation is still developing, and cites rising diagnosis rates for childhood anxiety and depression and elevated suicide rates among 10-to-14-year-olds as context for treating media literacy as a public-health measure rather than an optional elective. The piece proposes a curriculum teaching students to evaluate sources, distinguish fact from opinion, and recognize manipulative design, framing education — not blanket bans — as her preferred near-term policy lever.
Scelfo cites reported increases of 27% in anxiety diagnoses and 24% in depression diagnoses among U.S. children between 2016 and 2019 as backdrop for why she argues media-literacy education is overdue.
She writes that more U.S. children ages 10 to 14 have died by suicide in recent years than from cancer or other diseases, citing it as the human stakes behind the bill she is endorsing.
Scelfo, Julie. "N.J. Is About to Make Kids More Media-Savvy. Every State Should Follow Suit." The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 4, 2023. https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/media-literacy-curriculum-bill-new-jersey-social-media-20230104.html