Diana Krogh, the Vice President of Social Responsibility at The LEGO Group, addresses a common concern for parents: how to keep online play safe for kids. With the help of organizations like UNICEF and The LEGO Foundation, Krogh and her team have developed activities to help parents, caregivers, and kids safely navigate digital play.
While Krogh mentions that online gaming isn’t in and of itself harmful, she shares the idea that today’s kids are more fluid in their approach to playing, whether in digital spaces or in person. “Play for them is more fluid; they don’t see these boundaries. And if children don’t see them, The LEGO Group — guided by research and its belief that children learn best when they are playing — shouldn’t either.”
After launching the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) Project with UNICEF in 2020 and conducting the 2024 Play Well Study, the team has discovered that kids are more invested in learning about digital safety when they have agency. Rather than imposing a set of rules about navigating the internet, the study found that the more effective approach is to have open conversations and offer to hear kids’ perspectives. Krogh adds: “It’s building that bridge — instead of ‘put that away’ or ‘you can only look at it for 20 minutes,’ it’s about engaging on their terms, being curious, talking, and removing some of the tension.”
The study also found that parents find it difficult and, at times, awkward to talk to their children about cyber safety. To combat this awkwardness, the LEGO Group has developed a series of parenting tools and activities, like the Audio Adventures that cover topics of internet safety, the Build & Talk activity, where parents and kids can discuss and express themselves through LEGO building, and the “This Or That?” activity, where parents and kids can get together and play games while discussing their approaches to gaming.
The LEGO Group is also running test workshops in the U.K., China, and Indonesia in partnership with organizations like the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) to find more ways to further develop its own digital experiences, so that parents and kids can provide feedback and strengthen the tools used to help others.
Krogh and her team hope that these tools can help parents navigate the topic of digital safety while still keeping play at the forefront. “This is a topic we know is challenging for many. What we hope is that by taking a playful approach to this important topic, we can make it easier and more fun to talk about and thereby help families feel more confident navigating it together.”
For more information, visit lego.com/en-gb/families/talking-about-gaming.
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