A favorite channel
Somebody you watch every week says a new game is the best thing ever. You want it immediately.
What do you do?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
Your feed
You notice you keep getting videos about the same thing, over and over.
What is happening?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
Lots of what you see was paid for. Not just the obvious adverts — videos, posts and recommendations too.
Ads that do not look like ads
A favorite creator using a product may have been paid for it. There is usually a small word — "ad", "sponsored", "paid partnership" — somewhere.
Somebody chose what you see
A feed is not everything that exists. It is a selection, picked to keep you watching.
The question
Who gets something if I believe this, or buy this, or keep watching? That question does most of the work.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Who Benefits?
Match each thing to who gains from it.
Somebody gains in each case. Who?
Tap a card on the left to start.
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
A creator you like says a product is amazing. What is worth checking?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Find three sponsors
- Find three sponsored things this week — a video, a post, anything.
- Find the small word that says so.
- Note how easy or hard it was to spot.
Why: How hard the label is to find tells you something about how much they wanted you to see it.
Step 6: What You Learned
- Lots of what you see was paid for.
- A feed is a selection, not everything.
- Ask who gains if you believe it.
For the grown-up
Children at this age can spot a television advert and reliably cannot spot sponsored content, because it arrives from somebody they feel they know. That gap is the whole lesson.
Watching something together and hunting for the disclosure label turns this into a game rather than a warning, and it sticks better.
"Who benefits?" transfers well beyond advertising — into news, into arguments, into politics later. It is worth establishing as a household question.