Social media and science communication about the pandemic for children: implications for education

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the forms of social organization, especially in relation to the spaces frequented and accessed by children. The changes focused cover socioeconomic aspects of families and school closures, but also in the increased use of screens, access to Social Media and Internet content by children earlier. This leads to the role of sources of information about the pandemic accessed by families and children, which is the objective of the research carried out within the scope of the Observatory of Childhood and Early Childhood Education of the University of the State of Bahia. Through the analysis of questionnaire data, we concluded that families mainly used the Internet (including Social Media), radio and TV, as sources about the pandemic, which consequently reached children. This presents the social responsibility of these vehicles with the scientificity of information, and the school and adults in the problematization of content with children.