Background: School-based digital literacy education is one proposed strategy to reduce the harms of unguided digital media use in childhood. We describe a developmentally differentiated, single-session programme delivered by a paediatrician and report student-reported acceptability, self-perceived learning and immediate intentions. Methods: Description of a cross-sectional programme evaluation (private school group, northern Portugal, April 2026) delivered to students in Years 3 to 8 (n = 563; aged 7 to 14 years). Students completed an anonymous three-item questionnaire immediately after the session: satisfaction (1 to 5), self-perceived learning (yes/no) and intended changes (open-ended). Results: Median satisfaction was 5 (mean 4.37, SD 0.84), and 89.0% of students scored the session 4 or 5. Self-perceived learning was reported by 81.0%. Both outcomes were lower in older age groups (p < 0.001; small effect sizes). Of 487 codable open-ended responses, 117 (24.0%) were non-specific and 370 described a concrete intention, most often about screen time and healthy habits (209 responses; 42.9% of codable responses). Conclusions: Students reported high satisfaction and self-perceived learning. With no baseline, comparison group or follow-up, the study cannot show actual learning, behaviour change or effectiveness, and immediate intentions are only partly associated with later behaviour. Controlled studies with objective outcomes and follow-up are needed.
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Pinheiro et al. (2026) studied this question.
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