Children are the epitome of innocence; whatever they see or read creates an impression on their mind. Therefore, it is necessary to help them to discriminate between good and bad learning. Media literacy, a small word with a big meaning, acts as one of the solutions to such media issues. We cannot deny the fact that as compared to adults, it is children who have much greater need of developing media literacy. A media-literate child will have better ability to critically examine the media messages and not get fantasized by them. However, there are certain barriers that restrain the entire process of media literacy in children. These barriers may be of different kinds: economic, institutional, social and personal. Here, parents, teachers, broadcasters and government regulatory bodies have better potential to intervene in the process to enable greater media literacy in children.

The ability to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate information in a variety of formats. "Media literacy refers to composing, comprehending, interpreting, analyzing, and appreciating the language and texts of...both print and non-print. The use of media presupposes an expanded definition of `text'...print media texts include books, magazines, and newspapers. Non-print media include photography, recordings, radio, film, television, videotape, video games, computers, the performing arts and virtual reality...constantly interact...(and) all (are) to be experienced, appreciated, and analyzed and created by students."

The world of information is vast. The digital epoch has transformed the quantity, variety and speed of information available to us. It not only influences our perception and understanding of the society and the people we come across but also our lifestyle, food habits and decisions.The concept of media literacy marks its origin back in 1930 in Britain, as an educational tool to safeguard people from the ill-effects of mass media. Today, this concept assists people in critical analysis of the messages to identify the hype, propaganda and prejudices entwined with the delivered piece of information; and how the media owners or fund providers use it for their own benefits. All the information available to us may not be true or relevant for our varied purposes.

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