Can anyone really learn to be smart and stay safe online? There's always another catch, on your next click. There's a new 'danger, a new scam, or a new AI generated picture of dancing giraffes. (Yes, it is AI generated.)
This is - pretty much - the reaction I sometimes get from people when I share my Be Smart Cookie mission. I assure you, it does indeed feel like an endless task. But this week I had some good news.
On Monday Ofcom* announced that four online services - Google Search, The LEGO Group, Pinterest and Roblox - had signed up to Ofcom's Best Practice Principles for Media Literacy Design. Alongside this, Ofcom published a three year plan to step up its own work in media literacy.
Great. Seriously, this is a good thing and a reason to celebrate.
What I particularly like about what I read is that it brings in big players to join the media literacy dots with small players - like me - who teach people to be smart and safe online. As people develop tools to navigate the internet, the big fish can provide an environment where the tools will work really well. Otherwise, I'm just helping people develop tools that get harder to use as they fall back down the internet blackhole.
This will not happen overnight - there will be a time lag. But, as I now like to say thanks to a brilliant colleague, giving people the tools to tidy up the internet one step at a time is going to take time.
*Ofcom is the government regulator for communication services including online services.
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