The rapid explosion of electronic tools to broadcast information, market ideas and products, track, interact and partner with strangers, encourage mass sharing of personal information and pictures, and allow anonymous, yet intimate involvement in the lives of others, requires youth to develop skills and tools that have evolved to include both media and digital literacy.

In Simcoe Muskoka, of students in Grades 11 and 12, more than half report spending three or more hours watching TV/movies, playing video/computer games, chatting on a computer/tablet chatting, emailing, or surfing the Internet in their free time. Students using high levels of social media also report significantly higher rates of fair/poor mental health, psycholog­ical distress, suicidal ideation, and being cyber-bul­lied. In Simcoe Muskoka, 22% (19%-26%) of students report being bullied electronically or on the internet in the past year. Significantly more females report being high social media users than males.

MediaSmarts, a Canadian non-profit organization for digital and media literacy describes the competencies for digital literacy and media literacy as complementary and mutually supporting and constantly evolving and intersecting in new and interesting way. It defines the supporting role each plays as “media literacy generally focuses on teaching youth to be critically engaged consumers of media, while digital literacy is more about enabling youth to participate in digital media in wise, safe and ethical ways."