Responding to Concerns About Online Radicalization in U.K. Schools Through a Radicalization Critical Digital Literacy Approach

McNicol, S (2016) Responding to Concerns About Online Radicalization in U.K. Schools Through a Radicalization Critical Digital Literacy Approach. Computers in the Schools, 33 (4). pp. 227-238. ISSN 0738-0569

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Abstract

© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This article discusses the two main strategies commonly used to safeguard children and young people online; namely, Internet filtering and digital literacy education. In recent U.K. government guidance, both are identified as means to prevent online radicalization in schools. However, despite the inadequacies of filtering, more attention is usually paid to technical solutions than to pedagogic ones. In this article, a critical digital literacy approach is proposed to allow students to explore and discuss the types of controversial issues they may encounter outside school within a supportive environment. Such an approach can allow schools to meet their responsibility to help young people to develop appropriate skills to engage with the Internet as it actually is, not as we might like it to be.