User attitudes to on-platform interventions
Ofcom has a statutory duty to promote and research media literacy. The main way we fulfil this duty is through our Making Sense of Media programme, which aims to help improve the online skills, knowledge and understanding of children and adults in the UK.
To support our work in establishing good media literacy design principles as well as our wider media literacy work, Ofcom commissioned qualitative research to gauge online users’ understanding and perceptions of on-platform media literacy interventions. The research focuses on five broad intervention types: labels, overlays, notifications, resources and prompts. Our key aim was to gain insights on how to improve or change on-platform interventions, based on what users think should be considered when designing them. Following an initial sampling survey, we used online diaries and text-based focus groups to understand the experiences and opinions of over 100 adults and teenagers.
The research sets out users’ views of the relative value and potential use-cases for the different intervention types, as well as participants’ suggestions to increase the efficacy of interventions.