Play Like Share: online safety for 8-10 year olds

Our three-episode animation for 8-10 year olds helps them to learn how to spot pressuring and manipulative behaviour online and to stay safe from other risks they might encounter online.

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Play Like Share

Play Like Share follows the adventures of Alfie, Ellie and Sam as they form a band and enter their school’s Battle of the Bands contest, taking on the mean but ‘cool’ Popcorn Wizards as they go. The three friends learn that while the internet can help, they need to use it wisely and safely.

The aim of the films is to help 8-10 year olds learn how to stay safe online. In particular, the films teach them to spot the early signs of manipulative, pressurising and threatening behaviour by people they might meet online, and develops their confidence to respond safely and get help.

How you can use Play Like Share to help keep your child safe online

You can watch Play Like Share with your child and use this to start a conversation with them about the internet and being safer online. All three episodes can be found on our website for 8-10 year olds, where you will also find a fun interactive game called Band Runner that helps this age group learn how to be safer from risks they might encounter online.

When opening the conversation with your child, start with positives, finding out as much as you can about what your child does online and what it means to them.

Things you could try:

  • Ask your child to show you their favourite websites, apps or social media and what they do on them. Listen and show interest.  You could also encourage them to teach you the basics of the site or app. 
  • Ask your child if anything ever bothers or worries them about going online. You could use examples of events from the films and ask if they’ve ever heard of something similar happening. Talk in general about what children can do to stay safe online.
  • Use examples from Play Like Share to start a conversation about online ‘friends’ or ‘followers’. Ask them about who they chat to online, and whether they know and trust them ‘in real life’.
  • Talk about the importance of privacy settings and how they can help your child stay in control of what they share with others. Together, look at the privacy settings for the services they use, encourage them to only share things with people they know and trust in person. 
  • Using examples from Play Like Share, talk to your child about what might be appropriate or inappropriate to share online – this includes photos, videos, comments and personal information.
  • Talk to your child about how their online actions can affect others. Remind them to consider how someone else might feel before they post or share something.
  • Ensure your child understands that if anything ever happens online which worries or upsets them, they should always tell you.
  • Explain that you would never blame them for anything that might happen online, and you will always give them calm and non-judgemental support.
  • Make online safety an on-going conversation in your house… and involve the rest of the family in the conversation too.