The relevance of the article is conditioned by the declining age when a child first comes into contact with the media. They have a positive impact on the development of preschoolers and schoolchildren, but pose a number of threats. The study of the genesis of media education in Ukraine allows to identify ideas that are appropriate for implementation at the present stage in order to reduce risks and increase the positive impact of the media on the formation of the child’s personality. The aim of the article is to substantiate the periodization of the genesis of media education of older preschool and primary school age children (1959–2018) and to identify opportunities for the use of promising ideas in the modern educational field. To achieve the aim of the research, a set of methods has been used: structural-systemic – allowed to consider the genesis of media education as a component of the system of preschool and primary education against the background of socio-political, socio-economic, pedagogical factors; retrospective and historical-typological analysis, with the use of which the periods, leading ideas and tendencies of the genesis of media education were singled out; narrative – to present research materials with the elements of analytics. As a result of the research, the periodization of the development of media education at preschool and primary education institutions within certain chronological limits has been substantiated. The leading tendencies of the selected periods have been determined. There have been distinguished three periods of the genesis of media education of preschoolers and primary school students: the first (1959–1990) – propaganda and educational; the second (1991–2010) – competence-technological; the third (2011–2018) – conceptual-experimental. Ideas that can be implemented at the present stage have been identified.