Aussie Kids & Media
Survey 2023
In 2019, Squizers told us that they were worried about how the kids in their lives would grow into adults who had the skills to be critical consumers of media. So we launched Squiz Kids, a weekday news podcast for 8-12 year olds.
Since then we’ve won awards, been picked up in thousands of classrooms, and informed conversations about what’s happening in the world in thousands of Aussie homes.
And in February 2023, we surveyed parents, carers and teachers about their kids’ media consumption and how these skills are being developed at home and in the classroom.
In short, their concerns significantly outweigh their confidence that it’s being addressed. This report looks into this gap.
New survey finds 41% of Aussie primary school kids get their news from social media
A new survey of 775 Aussie parents and teachers has found that 41% of Australian primary school kids get their news and information from social media.
Among the key findings of the inaugural “Kids + Media Survey” - conducted by Squiz Kids, Australia’s premier daily news podcast for kids - were:
- 41% of parents and primary teachers said social media was the main source of news among the kids in their care;
- 78% of parents and 83% of teachers said they were ‘very worried’ their child or student was being exposed to misinformation on social media;
- More than half of survey respondents said they had ‘low confidence’ the kids in their care knew how to tell if something they came across on the internet was true or false.
- 90% of teachers said they had not received specific training on how to teach media literacy, but that it was one of the “most pressing areas of professional development’.
The survey was conducted over four weeks across the month of February 2023 - polling the Squiz Kids audience of parents and teachers. See the survey here.
“Primary school kids are on social media in ways that most parents and teachers can’t begin to fathom,” said Squiz Kids creator, Bryce Corbett. “And while they spend lots of time on TikTok and Instagram - few of them have been taught how to be critical consumers of media.
“As a result, they’re believing and circulating to friends information that often has no basis in truth. And with more information coming at our kids than at any other time in history, there’s never been a more important time for them to be taught the basics of media literacy.”
Created in 2020 by journalist Bryce Corbett, the Squiz Kids daily news podcast is listened to each day by over 160,000 Australian kids - including in more than 5,000 classrooms.
In October last year, in partnership with the Google News Initiative, Squiz Kids launched Newshounds, an eight-part media literacy podcast programme for primary school children.
In it, Squiz-E the Newshound takes kids on a fun, board-game-inspired adventure to learn how to recognise misinformation on the internet.
In the five months since it was launched, Newshounds has been accessed by almost 1000 classrooms around the country - and counting.
Squiz-E the Newshound