In a game
You are one level from finishing. A box says you can skip it right now for a small amount.
What do you do?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
A new app
An app wants a photo of you for your player picture.
What do you do?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
Some buttons in games cost real money. They do not always look like it.
Some ask for things about you
Your name, your age, where you live, a photo. Those are yours. Do not give them away without asking a grown-up.
The rule
If a button asks for money or asks about you, check with a grown-up first.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Tap, or Ask First?
Tap each one, then tap where it goes.
Which of these should you check with a grown-up first?
Tap something to move it.
- Empty
- Empty
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
A game asks where you live. What do you do?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Two things to ask about
- Say the two kinds of button you always ask about.
- Money, and things about you.
- Tell a grown-up you know the rule.
Why: Two is short enough to remember when a bright box appears.
Step 6: What You Learned
- Some buttons cost real money.
- Some ask for things about you.
- Check first.
For the grown-up
Games aimed at this age are designed so that purchase buttons look like play buttons. A child tapping one has not been careless; the interface was built to produce exactly that tap.
The categories that matter are money and personal detail. Keeping the rule to those two makes it memorable, where a longer list would not be.
Worth checking purchase authentication is switched on, so the lesson is a backstop rather than the only defense.