Student-Led Media Literacy Legislation in California

Student-Led Media Literacy Legislation in California

A Case Study | MediaEd Insights | Pause2MAP Edition | April 2026

Written by Elise Choi

Elise is a California high school junior and a Research Fellow at the Media Education Lab. 

Research Beginnings

As an aspiring journalist serving on the Student Advisory Board of the L.A. Times High School Insider, I was concerned that my generation urgently needed stronger media literacy skills to be able to stand up to the growing digital tidal wave of misinformation, disinformation, online manipulation, and information overload, now turbo-charged by AI. Without baseline media literacy skills, we can’t think critically about the information we consume, which is necessary for informed citizenship, a functioning democracy, personal mental health and wellbeing, and the ability to make good decisions in every area of our lives. 

I had many questions: how do we measure media literacy? What are the challenges to cultivating media literacy skills? It was fairly easy to find one of the country's leading scholars on the topic, someone who had not only studied and implemented media literacy education but was also engaged in policy work and grassroots organizing. When I reached out to Dr. Yonty Friesem in February 2025 with these questions, they were extremely generous with their time and resources in helping me explore my academic interest in media literacy. 

After introducing me to Renee Hobbs and the Media Literacy Implementation Index, a survey tool which Dr. Hobbs had developed, Dr. Friesem encouraged me to use the tool to conduct a study in California. We wanted to understand how California schools are implementing media literacy instruction in classrooms and how that lines up with perceptions of the importance of media literacy education. The resulting survey is now part of my high school AP Capstone research project, and has collected nearly 500 responses from California teachers, librarians, and administrators. Our hope was that the survey would help inform legislation and policy recommendations. While far from representative in a state the size of California, the survey represents the most current statewide snapshot of media literacy instruction in California classrooms. 

Legislative Initiatives

I am also serving as a Policy Director for GENup, a youth-led education advocacy organization and have focused my efforts on student media literacy. As I was launching my California survey in the summer of 2025, I also started to conduct research on California's education code and media literacy policies. I noted that GENup students had previously authored AB 873 (2023), the landmark California law that directed the state to consider integrating media literacy into California curriculum frameworks. While this bill was hailed as an important first step, it was also criticized by media literacy advocates as lacking a mandate or enforceability. 

Dr. Friesem introduced me to numerous people across the country and in California, and I was able to start meeting relevant thought leaders and advocates one by one over several months, until my network had grown to include professors throughout California, members of the California Department of Education, staff members of California legislative offices, nonprofit and special interest group leaders, and K-12 principals and teachers. This network not only helped me to distribute our media literacy survey but also to obtain ideas on the barriers to media literacy education and the types of policies that might make a difference. 

A light bulb turned on for me one day when I was talking to a graduate student of Dr. Friesem’s, Joe Rubin, who told me that his interest in media literacy was from a youth mental health and digital harm perspective. I took a fresh look at the California education code to see what is required in terms of health education. I found that in 2021, SB 224 was adopted into law which required that California middle and high schools that offer health education would be required to now incorporate mental health instruction. I noticed that while this bill addressed mental health conditions, symptoms, treatments, how to get help and how to reduce stigma, it did not address any of the digital factors that students are contending with, including the dangers of excessive screen time, social media addiction, gaming, cyberbullying, AI companion chatbots, and how to set health boundaries. So I decided to propose legislation that would advance media literacy under the banner of digital wellness because ultimately, like Mr. Rubin, I believe media literacy is the key to digital wellness. It gives young people the agency to determine what and how they consume media and interact with digital technologies and to think critically about what they consume and how it affects their beliefs, choices, and identity. 

The moment was right for introducing digital wellness policy because of the public attention around the social media lawsuits across the country and in particular, the landmark case against Meta and Youtube in Los Angeles, which has resulted in heightened concern around youth mental health related to digital technologies from all different groups – parents, students, educators, policymakers, and of course, mental health advocates. 

Over several months, I worked with partners at Media Literacy Now and Media Education Lab to pitch two different media literacy related bills to two dozen legislative offices across the California Senate and Assembly. The first was a digital wellness education bill proposal, and the second was a bill proposal to fund teacher professional development around media literacy through the use of private contributions from technology companies. We were able to secure meetings with 15 of the legislative offices, tailoring each pitch session to the individual legislator's record and priorities. 

In mid-February 2026, Assembly member Josh Hoover (Republican), Vice Chair of the Assembly Education Committee and lead author of California's Phone-Free Schools Act, agreed to carry the digital wellness bill for the 2026 session. Shortly after that, Senator Tom Umberg (Democrat) agreed to join as a co-author, securing bipartisan leadership across both houses. Obtaining support from both sides of the aisle signaled to me that the digital wellness framing had neutral ideological support, which was important in such politically polarized times. The second bill proposal did not secure a legislative author but we will try again in the next legislative session.

Coalition Building

Based on Dr. Friesem’s collaboration with Dr. Michael A. Spikes and Media Literacy Now co-founding the Illinois Media Literacy Coalition, they encouraged me to build a California-based coalition to help advance my legislative goals. There were many people in California I had met who were passionate about media literacy but working on the issue from different perspectives, whether it be research, curriculum development, teaching, or training other teachers, but I did not find a unified group focused on California media literacy policy. Together with Media Literacy Now’s California Advocate Starshine Roshell, we formed the California Alliance for Media Literacy, and I was encouraged by the level of interest and support. 

The coalition has now grown to more than 40 educators, researchers, nonprofit leaders, librarians, and policy experts, who meet approximately once a month. We developed a mission statement: to “drive research, education, and policy change to ensure media literacy and digital wellness education reaches every student in California.” In addition to many California stakeholders, our coalition partners include national organizations like Media Literacy Now, Media Education Lab, National Association for Media Literacy Education, Digital Wellness Lab, Common Sense Media, and News Literacy Project. 

AB 2071: Current Status

AB 2071 directs the California Department of Education to develop a comprehensive plan for age-appropriate digital wellness and media literacy curriculum to equip students to evaluate content critically and adopt safe, healthy digital habits. The bill builds on SB 224 (2021), which mandated mental health instruction in middle and high schools, by extending that framework to address the digital factors, including addictive algorithms, AI-generated content, social comparison, and misinformation which research and recent litigation have identified as contributors to the youth mental health crisis.

I have worked to raise awareness and lobby for this bill by speaking at events throughout California, particularly where educators would be present (e.g., California School Library Association and California Council for the Social Studies) and obtaining press coverage by publishing my own op-ed in Edsource and talking to reporters about student wellness pieces, like the social media verdict in Los Angeles. On April 15, 2026, I helped lead GENup’s annual lobby day in Sacramento, where a team of students gathered at the Capitol to meet with legislators to seek support for our bill.  

On April 8, 2026, the Assembly Education Committee voted unanimously to pass AB 2071, with the strong coalition backing of the California Alliance for Media Literacy and the submission of over 20 support letters to the Chair of the Assembly Education Committee. The bill is now advancing to the Assembly floor for approval, with the goal of being signed into law by California’s governor this summer. If signed into law, I believe AB 2071 as a mental health-focused media literacy bill could be among the first legislation of its kind in the country, potentially serving as a model for other states.

Significance and Takeaways

This case study illustrates how a high school student noticed a problem in their life related to media literacy, researched it, talked to experts and advocates about the causes and potential solutions to the problem, identified gaps in state legislation, and then proposed new legislation through research, strategic framing, coalition building, and persistent relationship-building. 
The Media Education Lab's partnership, from providing research methodology, institutional credibility, and a professional network and platform, has been central to this effort. This highlights the importance of collaboration between academic research and grassroots organizing in translating academic work on media literacy into public policy.

MediaEd Insights - April 2026 - Pause2MAP 

Opening Essay: The Waiting Game Isn't Enough: A Plea for Proactive Digital Wellness by Michelle Hirschy

Case Study: Student-Led Media Literacy Legislation in California by Elise Choi

Curriculum Review: How Pause2MAP Compares by Lucas Jacob 

Research Brief: Wait Until 8th?: Mothers' decision-making and management of children's smartphones in the United States by Susannah Stern