Our Impact

From our early days of small-scale advocacy in 2013, we’ve seen media literacy grow from an unclear concept to a critical component of education and public discourse. We’ve raised awareness and understanding of media literacy, driving policy changes, expanding strategic partnerships, and mobilizing communities to equip students with robust critical thinking skills and digital wellness strategies.

Our Impact Last Year

We saw 8 states took legislative action, passing bills focused on providing education on AI, the risks and benefits of social media use, digital citizenship, and online safety.
We recruited 8 new State Advocacy Leaders — 6 of whom are from new states!
We released Media Literacy in Massachusetts: A Landscape Scan and Policy Recommendations, the result of the first-ever statewide initiative to survey media literacy in schools and provide an action plan of recommendations to advance media literacy efforts.
We created the Oregon Media Literacy Coalition, expanding our coalition-building and advocacy work.
We released our Advocacy Toolkit for Parents & Individuals which outlines the need for media literacy education and provides ideas, activities, and resources to help individuals advocate for media literacy in their local schools and communities.
We collaborated with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office on Cell Phones & Social Media in Schools: A Toolkit for School Leaders & Communities and provided best practices and resources for incorporating media and digital literacy into classroom instruction.
We updated our database of digital wellness instructional materials with additional curriculum and resources, including new resources for professional development and teacher training.

Current Policy

Grassroots advocacy has been the driving force behind media literacy policy progress across the United States. Through years of sustained effort by state-level Media Literacy Now advocates, we’ve seen significant momentum in legislative action. Our latest Media Literacy Policy & Impact Report, released in January 2026, documents this remarkable shift: since January 2024, eleven states have taken new steps to strengthen media literacy education for K–12 students. To date, 25 states now have media literacy laws on their books, reflecting broad public support and the urgent demand for these critical skills.

Read the Report

This map shows which states have taken steps toward media literacy education reform through the legislative process only. We have not evaluated how state departments of education have integrated media literacy into standards or otherwise implemented the laws we reviewed. Last updated January 2026.

Bills We’re Watching

We’re encouraged to see more states taking action on media literacy education. From helping students understand the impact of social media on their mental and physical health to ensuring all young people build AI literacy and fluency, we actively track proposed legislation to identify opportunities to advance and champion media literacy for all K–12 students.

Visit our Bills We’re Watching page to see what’s happening in your state and how you can take action to help move these policies forward.

Take Action