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.
Help children practise skills in reading, predicting and discussions for World Book Day with Once Upon Online.
Across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, children in primary must learn key reading comprehension and talking/listening skills. Once Upon Online stories help with both, all while teaching digital literacy and safety.
Choose a story activity below to read with your class on World Book Day.
Rory feels stressed about a school research project and needs help making the right choices to help them learn. Children must help Rory complete their project in honest ways.
This story focuses on using digital tools like generative AI and word processors in appropriate ways for school.
Read Research Rescue
Adil must navigate a VERY interesting piece of information about his favourite streamer. Children must help him think critically about this information before sharing it.
This story focuses on misinformation and how to assess information.
Read the story
Emmy must learn how to create a positive and balanced relationship with her smartphone. Children must help her make good choices to guide her to a positive ending.
This story focuses on screen time and regulating your time on devices in appropriate ways.
Read A Delicate Balance
Elan has to decide between sharing her personal information and missing out on the in-game event of the year! Children must help her make safe decisions to support her safety.
This story focuses on creating strong passwords and understanding what privacy means.
Read the story
Social media starts making Antoni feel pressured to look a certain way that's not all that realistic. Children must help him find support for his mental wellbeing and self-image.
This story focuses on body image and the influence of the internet on our wellbeing.
Read Under Pressure
Voxyarn is the most popular online game at Nia’s school. But when she starts to play, she’s shocked by the hateful messages she receives. Children must help her find support.
This story focuses hate speech sometimes present in video games and the actions we can take.
Read Playing With Hate
Alex is upset by Riley's messages about his good friend Zane. Should he say something or just keep it to himself? Children must help Alex make positive choices to stop bullying.
This story focuses on bullying among friends and how to become an upstander.
Read Friendships in Danger
When Meera's friend invites someone new to their game, Meera struggles to make positive choices. Children must help her navigate healthy and unhealthy behaviours to support in-game positivity.
This story focuses on interaction between others online and how to stay safe.
Read A Friend Appears
Joseph learns how uploading content of someone else without their permission can have negative impacts. Children must help him make positive choices to support his friend and online reputation.
This story focuses on asking permission to post content and being careful about what you record.
Read the storyDigital 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.
