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Digital literacy means more than knowing how to tap, type, or open an app. Children also need to judge information, understand privacy and digital footprints, communicate thoughtfully, manage media habits, and recognize how technology shapes their lives. Teach these skills through age-appropriate discussion and real choices—not just device practice or warnings about danger.
What digital literacy means for children
UNICEF describes digital literacy as knowledge, skills, and attitudes that help children be safe and empowered in a digital world. That includes using technology to play, participate, socialize, search, and learn—not only operating devices. What children need to know depends on their age, local culture, and circumstances. UNICEF’s guidance on digital literacy for children also stresses that digital systems can affect children when they are offline, for example through facial scanning or AI-based profiling.
The goal is not to make children suspicious of every app or to treat safety as the whole subject. A digitally literate child can make informed choices, create and share, participate in digital life, and ask for help when something goes wrong.
The Tool Desk
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A broad school-age curriculum should develop several connected skills. Common Sense Education’s framework organizes its curriculum around six areas, including topics such as AI literacy and deepfakes. Its Digital Literacy & Well-Being curriculum describes the following areas:
#1 Best Overall
- SCREEN-FREE STEM CODING - Botley the Coding Robot helps kids learn sequencing and logic through screen?free play, making coding for kids fun at home, in classrooms, or homeschool settings
- HOMESCHOOL & STEM ACTIVITIES - Use during homeschool lessons, after?school challenges, and STEM events, this robot for kids brings coding concepts to life with obstacle courses and black?line paths
- DESIGNED FOR AGES 5+ - Great for young learners starting coding for kids 5-7 and still engaging for older kids exploring coding robots for kids 8-12, supporting skills that grow with them
- COMPLETE ROBOT KIT INCLUDED - Comes with Botley, a remote programmer, detachable arms, 40 coding cards, tiles, and obstacles-an all?in?one robotics kit ready for playrooms, classrooms, or homeschool spaces
- BUILD REAL CODING & STEM SKILLS - Kids program up to 80 steps, use loops, and create if/then logic, gaining confidence with a programmable robot that turns STEM learning into hands?on adventure play
- Information and media literacy: Check who made a claim, what evidence supports it, and whether another reliable source agrees. Recognize that images, videos, and posts can be edited, taken out of context, or generated.
- Privacy and safety: Consider what information an app, website, or game may collect and who may see what a child shares. Learn how to use privacy controls and how to get help if something feels unsafe.
- Digital footprint: Think about the audience and possible future effects of a post, photo, comment, or profile detail before sharing it.
- Relationships and communication: Practice communicating clearly and respectfully, including when tone is hard to read and people disagree.
- Cyberbullying and online harm: Recognize harmful behavior, consider its effect on others, and identify safe ways to respond or seek adult support.
- Healthy habits: Notice how media choices affect attention, mood, sleep, and time for offline activities. Learn to pause and choose what fits the situation.
How to teach judgment, not just device operation
Start with a question or decision a child can understand, then talk through the reasoning. Common Sense Education advises teaching foundational digital literacy and well-being before introducing classroom technology; its guidance says those foundations should come before students begin using tablets or Chromebooks. Its separate teacher guide to using technology recommends choosing technology when it substantively improves the learning experience for students’ age and stage.
- When a child encounters a surprising claim, ask: “How could we check whether this is reliable?” Look for the source, evidence, date, and independent confirmation.
- Before signing up for an app or sharing a photo, ask: “What information might this service collect, and who could see this?” Explore the relevant settings together.
- Before posting, ask: “What might someone else understand from this message?” Consider audience, tone, and whether the child would be comfortable with the post being shared more widely.
- When media use is taking over an activity, ask: “Would it help to pause or do this offline?” Make the choice about the child’s needs and context, rather than treating a single screen-time number as the whole measure of well-being.
- When choosing a classroom tool, ask: “What does this help students learn that another approach would not?” Consider learning purpose, age fit, privacy, accessibility, and engagement.
These conversations should leave room for children’s expression, play, learning, and participation as well as safety. UNICEF’s rights-oriented framing is a useful reminder that children are not only potential targets of online harm; they are people with agency in digital environments.
Rank #2
- Entry-level Coding Robot Toy: mBot robot kit is an excellent educational robot toys, designed for learning electronics, robotics and computer programming in a simple and fun way. From Scratch to Arduino, this STEM projects for kids ages 8-12 helps kids to learn programming step by step via interactive software and learning resources
- Easy to Build: With clearly building instructions, this building kit can be easily built within 15 minutes. Kids will learn more about electronics, machinery, and robotics components through building mBot. You can also play this STEM projects for kids ages 8-12 as a remote control car with its multi-functions: line-follow, obstacle-avoidance and so on
- Rich Tutorials for Programming: With Offerring coding cards and lessons, children can easily use all fonctions of mBot and creat projects by themselves. Matched with 3 free Makeblock apps and mBlock software, kids can enjoy remote control, play programming games, and coding with mBot robot kit. Note that the remote controller needs a CR2025 battery(NOT INCLUDED), and the robot kit needs 4 AA batteries (NOT INCLUDED)
- Awesome Gift for Kids: Surprise your little Kids with super cool robotics kit and let them discover the secrets of programming and electronics. Being well packaged and metal material, this robot kit is a perfect learning and educational toy gift for boys and girls on Birthday, Children's Day, Christmas, Easter, Summer Camp Activities, Back To School, Home Fun Time
- Creative Robot with Add-on Packs: So many fun configuration with an open-source system, this programmable robot is compatible with rich add-on packs. mBot can be connected to 100+ electronic modules and 500+ parts from the Makeblock platform, compatible with LEGO parts
Choose lessons and tools that fit the child and the purpose
Before adopting a curriculum or classroom technology, consider whether it fits the learners and the task. Use these checks to compare options:
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- Development and context: Is the language and scenario appropriate for the children’s age, local culture, and experience? Does the approach support children’s rights and agency?
- Learning value: What specific skill or understanding should students gain? Does technology improve the experience enough to justify using it?
- Privacy and access: What student information might the tool handle? Can all students use it accessibly, and are there workable alternatives?
- Coverage: Does the resource address information and media judgment, privacy, identity and digital footprint, relationships, well-being, and online harms?
- Practical fit: How long do lessons take, what preparation do educators need, and can the material support a planned sequence or a single teachable moment?
Free resources for families and educators
Common Sense Education
Common Sense Education’s current Digital Literacy & Well-Being curriculum lists more than 170 K–12 lessons across six topic areas. The provider describes lessons as about 20 minutes for K–8 and about 40 minutes for grades 9–12. Its implementation guidance describes 13 to 18 lessons per grade, recommends year-long implementation, and says lessons can also be taught individually or reordered. The provider offers the curriculum and self-paced professional development for free. See its curriculum overview and teacher guidance for details.
Rank #3
- EARLY STEM SKILLS: Botley helps your child learn early STEM skills while playing and having fun. He teaches kids to code with active, screen-free play that's perfect for promoting critical thinking and problem solving skills
- READY RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX: Botley is ready to code right out of the box! Have 5 AAA batteries and a Phillips screwdriver nearby and this coding robot will have your kid coding in minutes with code games, creativity and fun (3 AAA batteries for Botley and 2 AAA for the remote programmer, not included)
- SCREEN-FREE: Botley features completely screen-free coding: no phone or tablet required. Botley's easy-to-use remote programmer sends commands and gets him rolling. Coding for kids has never been easier
- SMART LOGIC: Botley has the ability to detect objects in front of him and avoid them. He can also follow looping commands, take on obstacle courses, and follow black-line paths. He even has hidden features to unlock. 77-PIECE ACTIVITY SET: Coding robots are great at learning new things, so Botley comes with a remote programmer, detachable robot arms, 40 coding cards, 6 double-sided tiles, 27 obstacle building pieces and a starter guide with coding challenges
Common Sense reports that more than 1 million educators have accessed its digital literacy resources and that 70% of U.S. schools have adopted its curriculum and resources; the page accessed in 2026 does not state a separate measurement year or denominator for the school figure. It also reports that 97% of educators said classroom and school culture improved after using the curriculum; that figure comes from a June 2026 survey of 2,238 registered educators, not a survey of all teachers. These are provider-reported reach and survey figures, not proof that the curriculum will have the same impact in every setting.
UNESCO
UNESCO’s 2024 teacher guidelines provide lesson plans, modules, and teaching strategies centered on critical thinking and ethical decision-making in digital environments. UNESCO’s 2022 media and information literacy curriculum connects competencies for today’s communications environment with AI, digital citizenship, and misinformation and disinformation. These are educator-facing frameworks rather than consumer recommendations for a particular app or product.
Rank #4
- BUILD, CODE & DRIVE YOUR OWN ROBOT CAR: Turn coding, electronics and engineering into a working programmable robot car you can assemble, program and drive; ideal for weekend family projects, STEM classrooms, coding clubs, robotics lessons and maker challenges
- EXPLORE FPV, LINE TRACKING & OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE: Control the robot with the ELEGOO app or IR remote, view live FPV video through the onboard camera, follow black lines, avoid obstacles with the ultrasonic sensor and explore multiple interactive driving modes
- BEGINNER-FRIENDLY BUILD WITH GUIDED WIRING: Keyed XH2.54 connectors help reduce wiring mistakes, while the illustrated tutorial and example programs guide beginners step by step from chassis assembly and module connection to programming and the first successful run
- GO BEYOND ASSEMBLY WITH CREATIVE CODING: Program with Arduino IDE to explore movement, sensors and control logic, then modify example code to create custom routes, reactions and robotics experiments that develop coding, problem-solving and engineering skills
- COMPLETE RECHARGEABLE STEM ROBOTICS KIT: Includes an ELEGOO UNO R3 controller board, ESP32-WROVER-based camera and Wi-Fi module, line-tracking and ultrasonic sensors, motors, IR remote and a 2000 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery; recommended for ages 8+ with adult guidance for first-time builders
What the available evidence does—and does not—show
UNICEF Innocenti says few digital literacy programmes operate at scale or have been evaluated for impact. That is a reason to avoid treating availability, popularity, or a provider-reported survey result as proof that one curriculum works best everywhere. Choose a resource for its fit with children, teaching goals, and local context, and pay attention to what learners can actually explain and do.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteUNESCO’s 2024 teacher guidelines cite platform-policy figures to illustrate the scale of online content moderation: between January and March 2021, YouTube found 85,247 videos that violated its hate speech policy, while Facebook removed more than 31.5 million pieces of content for violating its policy. These are platform removal figures, not a measure of children’s exposure.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- EASY REMOTE-CONTROLLED LEARNING PLAY: This friendly robot for kids uses a simple remote to introduce early coding ideas through playful cause-and-effect actions, building confidence and curiosity for young future coders at home or in the classroom.
- CODING ROBOTICS KIT: Open the box and jump into hands-on building as kids use the included coding cards to design command sequences for their robot, strengthening planning, logic, and sequencing skills that grow with every new challenge they create.
- MULTIPLE NEW CHALLENGES: As kids advance, this robot adds depth to their play with multi-step coding paths, 45° turns, and object-sensing reactions that encourage them to design longer routes, refine strategies, and tackle more complex problem-solving.
- MULTISENSORY FUN: Lights, sounds, and playful music give this kids robot a lot of coding options! The 16 secret code combinations offer open-ended play for curious young creators.
- EXPANSIVE 78-PIECE ROBOTICS KIT: This open-ended robot kit includes a coding robot, remote programmer, 40 coding cards, 6 double-sided boards, and stackable obstacle pieces that let kids build custom mazes, invent imaginative stories, and create fresh robots for kids adventures every time they play.
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