Resources for teachers and parents
Digital Matters is a free online platform featuring free digital literacy lessons to help teach online safety through interactive lessons and dynamic storytelling.
Digital Matters is a free teaching resource featuring digital literacy lessons to help children and parents understand online safety. It uses interactive activities and discussion points to dig into important online safety issues, and a choice-based story where children can practise their learnt skills with instant feedback.
Supported by the lesson plan, children are led through a number of quiz questions that ask them to use what they know or have learnt. Helpers support them with additional hints. After each set of questions within the digital literacy lesson, children can review the correct answers, and teachers or parents can have important discussions around the online safety topic.
This choice-based story asks children to read each chapter and make choices based on what they learned during the Interactive Learning section of each digital literacy lesson to help characters reach positive endings. Stories feature diverse characters, immediate emotional feedback and every opportunity to make choices that get characters out of negative situations. Children can redo this journey as many times as they like to try and find all the different potential endings!
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
In “Playing With Hate”, Nia is excited to start playing the most popular game at school — Voxyarn. She spends a lot of time creating an avatar that looks just like her (with some flourish) and feels really proud.
However, when she starts playing, some users say some really hurtful things. Students must help Nia and her nain navigate hate online to create a more positive space for all.
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
When Alex sees his friend, Riley, saying nasty things about Zane in a group chat, he isn’t sure what to do. Zane can’t see the messages, so is it really hurting him? In “Friendships in Danger,” help Alex become an upstander and find the right support to resolve conflict within his friendship group.
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
In “Sharing Gone Wrong,” Joseph is hanging out with his friends, including his best friend, Michael, when he decides to record the moment so they can all remember it. But when he shares it publicly, things start to go wrong. Help Joseph repair his friendship and learn about asking for consent when it comes to sharing content featuring other people.
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
In “Under Pressure,” Antoni loves finding fitness tips on social media. But when he starts to compare himself to the images he sees, he wonders if he’s doing enough and starts to look into his options. Help Antoni make positive choices to support his self-image and wellbeing.
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
Meera and her friends LOVE Dragoncry, an online video game. When a friend of a friend appears, Meera has to make positive choices about how to interact with them, including what to say and what to believe. In “A ‘Friend’ Appears,” users need to help Meera interact in healthy ways online and to get support.
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
Rory loves to research, so when they’re given a choice between researching Alexander Fleming or Florence Nightingale at school, they’re ready! But they soon find that research for school is a little harder than they thought. In “Research Rescue,” can they find the support they need to ace their project?
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
In “A Delicate Balance,” Emmy is a child in care and uses her smartphone and social media to keep in contact with friends and family she doesn’t always get to see. But things go wrong when her time spent on her device leaves her feeling stressed, takes away her sleep and leads to problems in school. Help Emmy find the right balance with her screen use to support her wellbeing.
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
“The Secret Identity of HarleeGamez” follows Adil who learns some shocking information about their favourite streamer, HarleeGamez. But he isn’t sure how trustworthy it is. Help Adil get to the bottom of what’s real to stop the spread of harmful misinformation.
In this digital literacy lesson, children learn:
In “The Trouble With Sharing,” Elan is about to ruin her streak when access to her phone is limited on holiday. So, she enlists the help of her friend Duha. Things aren’t so straightforward though, and users have to help Elan keep her personal information private while seeking out support when it’s needed.
After completing the digital literacy lesson’s story, talk to your child about the choices they made. What happened? Did anything surprise them? Have they ever experienced something similar?
Then, discuss the options your child has if they worry about something online. Encourage them to come to you, talk to another trusted adult or speak with a helpline counsellor — whatever makes them most comfortable.
Learn more about potential online issues to better support your child.
ESET is a digital security company protecting millions of customers and thousands of businesses worldwide. We are dedicated to protecting the progress that technology enables, this of course includes our children’s safe progress through their digital lives, therefore we are happy to support the Digital Matters platform featuring free digital literacy lessons.
