Age Group
8-11 year olds
Year Group
Key Stage 2
Duration
50-60 minutes
Group Size
1 - 150
Resource Pack?
Available
Follow Up Workshop
Request details
Digital Version?
No
Overview of The Snap Trap
Due to the constant advancement of technology, children are growing up with limitless access to the digital world. According to Ofcom (2018), children (aged 5-15) spend an average of 2 hours 11 minutes online per day. It is a well-known fact that social media and online gaming can negatively impact a young person’s emotional well-being and present safeguarding issues if they are not properly educated. In a report by the Children’s Commissioner (2018), she states that “while social media clearly provides some great benefits to children, it is also exposing them to significant risks emotionally, particularly as they approach year 7”. Today’s youth are the information generation. We believe young people need to be more informed in order to make better decisions when using smart technology, and especially on social media and gaming platforms.
- Demonstrate peer pressure and coercive behaviour and how to stop it.
- Encourage audiences to be SMART when going online (Safe, Meeting, Accepting, Reliable, Tell).
- Help parents support children to use social media in a positive way.
- Help schools broaden digital literacy and children’s resilience.
- Prepare children for the ‘transition’ to secondary school.
- Making informed choices
- Recognising how images in media and online don’t always reflect reality
- Recognising risk and how to manage it
- Responsibility to keep themselves and others safe
- Pressure to behave in unacceptable and risky ways
- Asking for help
- Strategies for keeping safe online
- Responsible use of phones
- Managing requests for images of themselves or others
- Keeping secrets
- Recognising and realising consequences of teasing, bullying and aggressive behaviour (cyber-bullying, trolling)
- Recognising and managing dares
- Understanding boundaries
- Critically examining what is in social media; importance of being careful of what they forward to others
Testimonials
The staff who delivered the session were excellent. Through their acting and their thought-provoking questions, they really engaged the children in the session. They questioned the children to ensure that the correct messages were understood. They shared information that all children (and staff) need to know. Thank you to the staff for their professionalism and enthusiasm; your work makes a positive difference to the choices our young people make.
Jennifer Davies – St Winefride’s Catholic Primary School
The session was an engaging way to show children the potential problems they may face when online and make them aware of the impacts their own actions can have. Many of the children commented that they preferred learning about the issue in this format as it felt more realistic and they were invested in the story so wanted to listen. Overall, I thought it was a great way to address the issue.
Bethan Pritchard – Dee Point Primary School
I have just returned from a ‘Snap Trap’ session at my daughter’s primary school and found the performance to be powerful, engaging and extremely relevant to this age group’s current online world. As a mum, watching this alongside my daughter has given me a springboard into some conversations that I want to have with her before I allow her to have a smart phone. As a child therapist, I have seen first-hand the effect of online grooming and I wish that every year 5 and 6 could have the ‘Snap Trap’ at their school. A truly excellent experience and I thoroughly recommend it.
Rachel Thomas – Year 6 Parent
Key Themes
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
SOCIAL MEDIA DANGERS
CYBER-BULLYING
E-SAFETY
SMARTPHONE MISUSE
CSE