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Sara Clinehens is a school librarian in Maine, Ph.D. student in communication and information sciences at the University of Alabama, and a former reality TV producer. She is the Maine state advocacy lead for Media Literacy Now. R. Alan Berry is a doctoral candidate at the University of Maine and a state advocacy researcher for Media Literacy Now. He is a member of the Maine chapter of the national Scholars Strategy Network, which brings together scholars across the country to address public challenges and their policy implications. This column reflects their views and expertise and does not speak on behalf of their institutions.
Every day, Maine students are swimming in oceans of digital media content — algorithmically curated, AI-generated, and emotionally engineered — and few have ever been taught how to tell what’s real, what’s manipulative, and what’s just plain false, or how to safely and responsibly navigate the digital media environment and engage with digital media technologies.
Maine took a meaningful step to address this challenge, when Gov. Janet Mills signed a bell-to-bell cell phone ban into law in April, requiring all public schools to prohibit student use of personal electronic devices during the school day, starting this school year. Schools that have already adopted similar policies, including Bangor High School, report improved focus, stronger grades, and better classroom engagement.
But here’s an honest question we need to sit with: What happens when the school day ends?
Removing phones from classrooms doesn’t remove the internet from our children’s lives. It doesn’t teach them to recognize a deepfake, evaluate a viral claim, or understand how recommendation algorithms are shaping their worldview and their sense of self. Phones will go back into their pockets the moment the bell rings, and they’ll log back in without the skills they need to navigate what’s waiting for them there.
That’s not an argument against the phone ban. It’s an argument for what must come next.
Research makes the stakes clear. Nearly half of all U.S. teens now say social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age, which is a sharp rise from just a few years ago. In March, a jury delivered a landmark verdict in K.G.M. v. Meta, the first time social media companies have been found civilly liable for deliberately designing their platforms to addict young users. The plaintiff began using YouTube at age six and Instagram at age nine. Jurors found evidence the company acted deliberately.
More than 10,000 similar lawsuits are now waiting in courts across the country. If a jury has concluded these platforms were engineered to exploit our children, the least we can do is teach children to recognize and resist that exploitation.
Twenty-five states now have media literacy laws on the books. Maine is not one of them.
Our New England neighbors are leading the way. Connecticut now requires media literacy to be integrated into social studies instruction statewide and is addressing AI in education. Rhode Island has enacted legislation directing its Department of Education to incorporate media literacy into the basic education program. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently conducted the first-ever statewide initiative to document the scope of media literacy education in public schools. These states understand that digital safety isn’t just about limiting access, but it’s also about developing media literacy skills.
This is also a college and career issue. AI and big data now top the list of the fastest-growing workforce skills globally, and AI literacy and media literacy are increasingly inseparable. You can’t think critically about AI-generated content or ethically use AI systems without the foundational skills to analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of media. The students entering Maine’s workforce and colleges in the next decade will need these skills.
The phone ban is the floor, not the ceiling. We urge Maine to build on this momentum and pass legislation that brings comprehensive media literacy education into every classroom, from evaluating sources and identifying manipulative information to understanding AI and engaging safely and responsibly online. This issue transcends politics. It’s about making sure our children are healthy, confident, and competent media consumers and creators.
Maine has never waited for permission to lead. We just became one of 26 states to go bell-to-bell on phones. The next step is clear: Pass legislation that gives every student in every Maine classroom the skills to confront the world they actually live in. Contact your legislator today. This one is too important to wait.