LEGO Launches Campaign to Help Parents Teach Kids About Internet Safety

The LEGO Group launched a new initiative to help parents talk to their kids about online safety and digital citizenship

By Sophia Martini July 21, 2020

According to Kapersky, 84 percent of parents are worried about their child's online safety but aren't taking the time to educate them. The LEGO Group announced its new campaign “Small Builds for Big Conversations,” which seeks to provide parents with simple, fun ways to discuss online safety and well-being with their children, while playing with LEGOS. This initiative will provide tools to encourage children ages 6-10 to be good digital citizens and practice online safety.

The campaign takes an approach they call ‘Build & Talk,' which is meant to encourage learning through play. Parents and children will tackle a series of challenges to build characters with LEGOs whose physical features represent both the positive and negative experiences children can run into online. The goal is to use these characters to start conversations around digital safety and potential internet dangers.

There are three themed activity packs each with inspiration and tips on how to build your character and talking points and questions to guide the conversation and help parents engage with their children in a natural way.

During the coronavirus pandemic, more than 290 million children had to transition to online learning. As a result, internet usage skyrocketed showing that screen time will have quadrupled for many kids by September. It's more urgent now than ever for young children to understand how to stay safe online, according to LEGO.

“As a parent I know it’s not always easy to talk to your children about being a good digital citizen in a way they understand, as they are often influenced by peer pressure and exciting digital experiences," Anna Rafferty, vice pesident of digital consumer engagement said in a press release. "We have a long history of creating safe digital play experiences for kids, so we wanted to give parents the confidence to connect with their children on this important topic."

Building inspirations for all of the characters are available on the LEGO website. Each character takes around 10 minutes to construct using existing blocks, and their physical features are meant to reflect different aspects and personas children can see online. This initiative includes challenges designed in line with UNICEF digital safety guidelines.

The ‘Build & Talk’ activity packs are available for free now on the LEGO website