The LEGO Group extends its Digital Citizenship programme to help families across the globe become digitally smart

 The LEGO Group has launched a new programme of fun, interactive guides, games and play activities designed to help parents raise digitally smart families.

At a time when we are online more than ever, the new experiences explore and promote a better understanding of key digital citizenship skills such as digital empathy, screen time management, and privacy and safe sharing among the whole family.

The playful new tools and activities have been developed by the LEGO Group in collaboration with the DQ Institute – a world-leading think tank on digital citizenship and child online safety – to equip children and families with the digital knowledge and skills needed to thrive and be safe in a digital world.

At the heart of the new activities launched today is Doom the Gloom, a mix of mini-games and interactive videos that provide children with the opportunity to playfully explore and learn more about safety and wellbeing in the digital world.

The Doom the Gloom experience explores eight key competency areas identified by the DQ Institute’s DQ Framework that empower children to become positive digital citizens, who contribute to healthy digital communities.

The Doom the Gloom learning experiences include:

Interactive videos:
• ‘Stay True to You’ – to help children understand what their digital footprint is and how their online interactions can leave a long-lasting digital trail.
• ‘What Online Hero Are You?’ – to show the importance of being kind to each other online.
• ‘Train Your Digi-Sense’ – to help children develop their critical reasoning skills so they can evaluate information, content, and friendships they may encounter online.

Mini-games:
• ‘Power Up to Power Down’ – a playful exploration of screen-time management.
• ‘Get Digi-Defensive’ – a fun introduction to privacy and cyber security management that helps children learn how to create and protect strong passwords.

Doom the Gloom also includes a ‘Hero Builder’ feature, where children can design their own virtual minifigures and add accessories they gather throughout the course of the experience. Accessories are unlocked after each mini-game or interactive video is completed – and children are encouraged to upload screenshots of their minifigures to the LEGO Life platform to celebrate their digital citizenship journey.

The child-focused Doom the Gloom experience is complemented by a host of other tools to help parents and families become digitally smarter.

• The Digitally Smart Guide offers parents a ‘crash course’ into the key digital citizenship skills that their child will learn about through the Doom the Gloom experience.
• The Digitally Smart Explorer is a new board game style quiz for families, with questions relating to topics covered in the Doom the Gloom experience that strengthen and reinforce the digital skills and knowledge learnt.
• Two new story-style Build & Talk activity packs designed to help families have enjoyable and meaningful conversations about how to manage screen time and how to spot false information online over playful LEGO building activities.

“As children are spending more and more time online with home-based learning and social distancing, it is critically important for parents and families to be equipped with tools that they can easily use to empower their children in becoming good digital citizens with critical thinking at a young age,” said Yuhyun Park, Founder of the DQ Institute and international expert in digital skills and child online safety.

“That is why we believe the Digitally Smart Guide and Explorer, Build & Talk, and Doom the Gloom are so timely. We are so pleased to be partnering with the LEGO Group on the development of these programmes.”

The new experiences add to the suite of tools, guidance and experiences the LEGO Group offers families to empower all children to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to thrive in a digital world.

Kathrine Kirk Muff, VP of Social Responsibility at the LEGO Group, commented: “Play should be as safe in the digital world as in the physical one. That’s why we design all our digital products and experiences with child safety at the core. What’s more, we want to play our part in ensuring children and families can learn about digital safety and wellbeing through playful experiences. We hope these new activities enable families to playfully explore what it means to be a good friend and player online, to nurture healthy digital safety habits and better understand how they can contribute to safer and more positive communities in a digital age.”

Doom the Gloom is now available globally at in 20 different languages at LEGO.com/campaigns/kids/doom-the-gloom. The new parent and family focused experiences are being launched globally in English from 6th October and German from 4th November and will be available at LEGO.com/digitalsafety. All activities, experiences and guides are available free.

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About the LEGO Group  
The LEGO Group’s mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through the power of play. The LEGO System in Play, with its foundation in LEGO bricks, allows children and fans to build and rebuild anything they can imagine.   

The LEGO Group was founded in Billund, Denmark in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, its name derived from the two Danish words LEg GOdt, which mean “Play Well”. Today, the LEGO Group remains a family-owned company headquartered in Billund. However, its products are now sold in more than 130 countries worldwide.

About the DQ Institute
The DQ Institute (DQI) is an international think-tank that is dedicated to empowering 1 billion citizens with digital intelligence by 2030 through its #DQforALL movement. Working together with international agencies and local partners, DQI’s award-winning educational programs include the #DQEveryChild initiative and its DQ framework has been recognized as the world’s first global standard for digital literacy, skills, and readiness (IEEE 3527.1-2020). Its affiliated organizations are the Coalition for Digital Intelligence and DQ Lab Pte Ltd, a social enterprise based in Singapore that focuses on research, development, and dissemination of the DQ Global Standards. For more information: https://www.dqinstitute.org/