Parents & Guardians

We want to help parents and guardians better understand young peoples digital world, and support them through effective conversation and active participation.

As your teenager begins to go online, they can choose to engage with many social media platforms. Striking a balance between a teen’s expectation of privacy and ensuring they are protected is no easy task.

That’s why Media Smart – in partnership with TikTok – has created ‘Teens, Social Media & You’.

Please click here to discover film resources and guides – full of tips, tools and techniques.

In today’s digital age, the rise of scams targeting young people is alarming. Recent findings by Action Fraud highlight a concerning trend:

Over a thousand children and teenagers in the UK are scammed every month.

Scam awareness and education are more crucial than ever.

Media Smart is supporting the UK Government’s National Campaign Against Fraud through an innovative scam awareness campaign. ‘Scam Flags Add up to a Scam’ helps 13+ year-olds identify scams, where to report them and where to go for support.

Head over to our Scams page to watch our five short, animated films and download our useful support guide. If you are an educator or parent, we’d love you to play them in your schools or discuss them with your children at home. You might find you even learn something too!

Research shows that people are significantly less likely to trust political advertising than they do commercial advertising.

Mindful of imminent local, mayoral and general elections, Media Smart (in partnership with the Advertising Association), has published a new 10-point guide to help people – especially young people preparing to vote for the first time – understand more about the political ads they will be seeing.

Please visit our Politics page if you would like to download and read the full guide.

We are excited to share a new interactive and educational workshop, all about the Advertising and Media industry as a career option for young people. The session will teach students about the kind of roles that exist, to experiencing first-hand what it’s like to work in an agency, through to thinking about their own relationship with ads.

It’s our hope that by engaging young people, we can inspire them to consider the advertising and media industry as a potential and exciting career opportunity that is available and accessible to everyone.

The detailed resources, which you can find here, will provide you with everything you need to facilitate the workshop yourself in the classroom.

This guide is designed to provide an engaging introduction to body image and advertising, outlining how parents and guardians can play a key role in supporting young people to develop positive body image. This resource will contain information, advice and activities to help adults give young people a strong sense of their own worth and identity.

For the first time, Media Smart has created a film to support our resources – which you can watch below. It features young people discussing body image and advertising, acting as a starting point for discussion.

We know that there are many challenges for modern families regarding digital media, so with the support of leading academic and industry experts Media Smart has created educational resources for parents.

These resources will take you through terminology, the reasons why there are adverts on social media and which techniques are being used to gain attention. After reading this, we hope your entire family will feel more confident, informed and safer online.