Teach Kids Online Safety by Building LEGO
This is a universal problem: you want to teach your kids online safety, but they just want to build LEGO all day long. Well, finally, you can do both at the same time as the recently launched LEGO Build and Talk activities.
LEGO has created three free activities with many creative characters for kids to build; each character represents a positive and negative experience that children can have online. For example, the chatterbox game is inspired by kids who like to chat with their friends through video and messaging apps, but also includes a few “wary” characters that represent negative behaviors that they should be alert to. … These include the “niggard” who mocks or trolls users, the “possessor” who may try to invade their privacy, and the “chameleon” who is a stranger.
Activity Packs offer conversation topics to kickstart the conversation about online safety while you create characters with your children – questions such as, “Do you think people are saying things in online messages that they would not say in person ? ” or, “What if they force you to do something you don’t want?”
You don’t need to buy specific LEGO sets to create these characters – you can use any bricks you already have. You can try to make your builds as similar as possible to the LEGO versions, or simply use them as inspiration to create your own versions of Chatterbox , Multiplayer , or Giggle while tackling topics such as screen time management. , in-game purchases, phishing, scams, bullying and privacy.
You can find printable PDFs of all three types of “online explorers” as well as all the nefarious “wary” characters on the LEGO Build and Talk website . And when you’re done, you can share your creations with other kids and parents in the LEGO Life app with the hashtag #OnlineExplorers.