With the introduction of genAI into education, schools naturally feel a need to develop AI literacy among staff, students, and community. At the same time, students, educators, and advocates alike – Media Literacy Now included! – are also calling for a greater focus on youth media literacy. The good news: these two forms of essential literacy are so intertwined that they can and should be developed together.

Let’s define these literacies. Media Literacy Now defines media literacy as the ability to:

• Decode media messages (including the systems in which they exist);
• Assess the influence of those messages on thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; and
• Create media thoughtfully and conscientiously.

AI literacy can be defined as having the knowledge and skills to:

• Understand how AI tools are developed and function
• Observe and understand how AI is impacting the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals and larger systems (economy, environment) 
• Use AI tools safely, ethically, and effectively through understanding tools’ abilities, limitations, benefits, and risks

In both definitions, we see a core focus on:

• Understanding how consuming information impacts thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
• Understanding the interaction between social systems and messaging
• Safe and ethical creation and dissemination of content

Moreover, AI impacts the types of media youth encounter, with one study showing that 57% of all online content is AI-generated, and another estimating that number increasing to 90% by 2026. Also, any user with access to even a basic version of genAI tools can create synthetic media that seems genuine, and unsurprisingly a 2025 study showed 41% of teens reported having encountered misleading content online. This media is sometimes in the form of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), a phenomenon impacting students across the country – 15% of students say they personally know a victim – and which served as the motivation behind the recently passed Take It Down Law, which criminalizes the distribution of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes and so-called “revenge porn.” The same ability to generate synthetic media can also be used to create misinformation about public or political figures, which can have a major impact on civic discourse and democratic engagement.

The advent of AI also creates specific challenges in how youth interpret media. Those with lower levels of AI literacy tend towards two unhealthy habits – cognitive offloading and  anthropomorphization. Cognitive offloading refers to users allowing AI tools to perform critical thinking tasks for them and then blindly trusting the outputs they receive. This impacts students’ development of critical thinking and other durable skills needed for academic and career success. This reduction in critical thinking has more drastic social and emotional impacts when youth’s interaction with AI tools spills over into anthropomorphization. All human beings tend to anthropomorphize – ascribing human characteristics to machines, objects, or animals – but users with lower levels of AI literacy tend to anthropomorphize AI tools much more, even developing unhealthy dependencies on their interactions with AI bots. A recent Common Sense Media study showed that 7 in 10 teens have used these tools for a variety of practical, social, and emotional uses. This high usage rate, combined with recent tragic examples of students who have engaged in self-harm encouraged by interactions with these companion bots has fueled calls for both AI & media literacy and for bans on such tools for minors.

Thus, we see that AI and media literacy both impact social discourse and the functioning of our democracy, how students interpret media, their ability to engage in critical thinking, and their social-emotional well-being.

There have naturally been a spectrum of responses to AI. On one end, there is great enthusiasm for the tools’ promise and a push for rapid adoption. On the other end, there exists skepticism and fear about the risks associated with these tools and their impacts. 

Those viewpoints – and an array of opinions in between – likely exist in every school community. A joint approach to developing AI and media literacy can ground these different perspectives in reality in order to bring folks together and begin to devise solutions that support the needs of students and families. Developing local policy can be another core aspect of supporting these literacies. State legislatures also have a role to play, and a number of states have introduced or  passed legislation promoting or encouraging schools to provide AI literacy and/or media literacy instruction.

Interacting with AI tools and consuming media involves both benefits and risks. Understanding AI and AI-generated media is essential for developing media literacy, just as understanding the impact and ethics of consuming and creating media is a core aspect of AI literacy. In other words, they are inseparable. Given that, schools can consider how best to address these literacies together.

How can we ensure youth develop these vital forms of knowledge? Media Literacy Now has developed a toolkit to help parents and individuals advocate for media literacy instruction in K-12 education through engagement with state legislators and local schools. Caregivers and students can learn together and start a conversation about the impacts of interacting with media — especially AI-generated content — to build awareness of one’s own use and how it influences their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Educators likewise can engage with students and families on these topics, and advocate from within for a greater focus on a unified approach to media and AI literacy within their school. Also, subscribe to Media Literacy Now’s newsletter to stay updated on developments related to media literacy in your state and across the nation.

Some additional resources that can support that learning and engagement:

• AI Literacy Lessons for Grades 6–12 (from Common Sense Media)
• Training Course: AI Basics for K–12 Teachers (from Common Sense Media)
• Teaching About AI (from News Literacy Project)
• How to teach students critical thinking skills to combat misinformation online (from American Psychological Association)
• A Parent’s Guide to Media Literacy (National Association for Media Literacy Education)
• Digital Literacy & Well-Being Resources for Family Engagement (from Common Sense Media)
• AI Literacy Family Toolkit (from Day of AI & Common Sense Media)

About the author: Brian Baker is a Media Literacy Now State Advocacy Leader for Oregon, bringing 19 years of equity-driven experience in public education, spanning classroom teaching, district administration, state government, digital learning, and policy advocacy. He also serves as Chief Learning Officer at 24th Century Education, Senior Policy Consultant for K-12 schools at AI Governance Group, is a member of the EDSAFE AI Catalyst Fellowship, and has contributed to the work of other national organizations such as SETDA, TeachAI, and CoSN. He is the lead author of the Oregon Department of Education’s AI policy guidance for districts and its soon-to-be released Information Literacy Toolkit for Schools. A proud educator, husband, advocate, and dog papa, Brian resides in Corvallis, Oregon.