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.

‘The Snap Trap’ is an interactive theatre show which helps children recognise the risks associated with online activity and the use of social media including apps such as: Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp. We tell the real stories of young people and how their digital lives turned their real lives upside-down. There are two central characters in the show who we see fall into dangerous situations online. Sam is being coerced into taking risks that are only going to end one way. Amy thinks she is meeting up with the coolest boy in school, but it turns out that she has been talking to someone completely different. Facilitators pause the action throughout the performance and encourage audiences to share their thoughts on the issues.
- Highlight misuse of social media and the impact of cyber-bullying and sexting.
- 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.
- Deepen understanding of mental and emotional health
- 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
- Actions that affect themselves and others
- Keeping secrets
- Recognising and realising consequences of teasing, bullying and aggressive behaviour (cyber-bullying, trolling)
- Recognising and managing dares
- Understanding boundaries
- Developing strategies for getting support for themselves or others at risk
- Critically examining what is in social media; importance of being careful of what they forward to others

Key Themes

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
SOCIAL MEDIA DANGERS
CYBER-BULLYING
E-SAFETY
SMARTPHONE MISUSE
CSE