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eNurture animation series

The eNurture Network was a UKRI funded network that fostered new collaborations to promote children and young people’s mental health in a digital world. Over a 4 year period the network brought together academic researchers, professional advisers and partners from public, private and third sector organisations.

Video transcript

Audio Visual
Navigating digital age as a parent can feel like an uncharted deep-sea expedition The video opens with three people in the scene, a little girl, a boy and their mother, the girl is on her tablet while the boy surfs through his smartphone and the mother observes them both, shrugs towards the viewer, perplexed about how to monitor their activity as the boy shows a thumbs up to the screen.
The shifting tides and evolving technology can make it hard to keep up The setting changes completely, taking the girl, the boy and their mother underwater inside a submarine. The submarine has two windows, and through each the children and the mother look, and the submarine is on the vigilance of the waters that are filled with water plants.
Tools that were developed for parents during the TV era aren’t much help anymore The visual from the previous scene is captured inside a TV in this slide.
A bit like a compass that doesn’t point north The TV disappears to the left and a magnetic compass comes into the focus which is unable to point towards North.
To grasp digital modern parenting, we sought a fresh approach adapted to measuring 21st-century parenting in its diverse forms, since not everyone has the same methods Now, a girl with binoculars is observing and searching her surroundings.
Our research has led us to uncover 6 strategies that today’s parents are adopting to navigate these digital waters
She finds it hard to tell if he’s using his laptop for homework or fun, especially since he’s become adept at quickly switching screens when she enters the room The camera now focuses inside the submarine, where Tondrai, the boy from the last slide, is sitting on a chair table and surfing on the internet, and his mother, Lulu, is checking on him. A head bubble appears over Tondrai saying “I need another hour on my homework, MUM!”
Co-use: concerned he was out of touch with his daughter’s online interest, Lizzie’s dad suggested that they embark on a journey of learning together. The scene shifts to a sunny morning with bright clouds, and a father and his daughter rowing a boat in the sea.
Tablet in hand, Lizzie showed Dad her favourite nature shows, where they explored deep-sea wonders, nurturing shared moments of discovery Lizzie, girl from the previous scene, is showing her dad nature shows on her tablet, both of them learning and discovering underwater environments together
Technological Monitoring: worried about the unknown depth her son was delving to online, Priya chose to cast a digital safety net by setting up monitoring software on 13 year old Raj’s phone. In the same clear waters with fishes and plants inside, Priya, Raj’s mother is monitoring his online activity aboard a turbo boat. Raj is inside the water wearing safety gears scrolling through his smart mobile phone
The app relayed weekly logs of the sites he explored, guaranteeing she stayed in the loop and that he charted a safe course. A hand is holding and scrolling through a list of social media websites over a smartphone.

We come back inside the ocean waters, where one by one 6 water bubbles pop up with 6 strategies: mediation, technological monitoring, authoritarianism, boundary negotiation, co-use, and monitoring by proxy.
Mediation: picture 17-year-old Lucy caught in a social media storm and feeling upset, Gray-black clouds pour rain over the sea, and a girl named Lucy is caught in that rainy storm on a canoe.
Seeking refuge she turned to her dad, with a comforting hug and a few kind words he transformed her online mishap into a valuable lesson We see that the storm passes and Lucy goes to the shore, On the shore side, there stands a tall coconut tree. There she finds her dad waiting for her with open arms, she hugs him and he calms, and pampers her down.
Authoritarianism: Meet Anna, the captain of her family ship. Sailing through the digital age with two teenagers on board, she set a firm rule, whenever she called out: dinner’s ready The camera moves to a setting of a dining room, where two girls are seated opposite the dining table. The table has three glasses on it. Then enters the girl’s mom wearing a ship captain’s hat and holding a card in her hand, a message appearing above her head that reads “dinner’s ready”.
The phones had to be stowed away. This was a time for family connection, not digital distraction. Now we are sent to a kitchen setting with cupboards, on the left and drawers on the right, which are being used to surrender the girls’ smart phones.
Boundary Negotiation: Lulu often finds herself at crosscurrents with her 14-year-old son, Tondrai, over his constant online activity In this visual, we again find ourselves under water inside a submarine, on the one window is a boy and on the other is his mother.
Monitoring by proxy: On a family day out, aunt Rosa whispered to Sofie, the mother of 10 year old Mia Both parents and their kids, all geared up under water, kids involved in their activities.
Did you know, Mia’s been sharing tales of a new online game with her cousins? Thought you should know. Now the camera pans towards one parent whispering something to another, while the girl is on her phone in the same scene as before.
As we delved deeper, we discovered that there’s no one size fits all when it comes to digital parenting, and the age of the child and where they live play a significant role 6 water bubbles appear in the underwater scene, two of them carry map location icons, and the rest contain numbers: 10, 17, 12, 14, all floating in the water.
As kids grow older, parents deploy these strategies less and less, except boundary negotiations, meaning the technology tension between parents and teens remains steady even as they grow. Six clocks with six different strategies written inside the clock reading: Mediation, Boundary negotiation, authoritarianism, co-use technological monitoring, and monitoring by proxy.
In cities, parents tend to cast their nets wide through monitoring by proxy Buildings and houses rise up in a city-like setting, a flag on a flagpole appears displaying “Monitoring by proxy”
While in suburbs and countryside, mediation takes the helm Now, the camera moves to the left of the screen focusing on a more suburban setting, and flag displaying “Mediation”
To further map unexplored waters we need to set sail on more research voyages to explore how digital parenting might differ in homes with neurodivergent children The camera now pans to the right of the screen showing unchartered waters, and Priya rowing the turbo boat. The flag there says: “Digital parenting with neurodivergent children”
In the digital depths, as with the sea, there are both wonders and risks. But with proper guidance, parents can help children to navigate safely and smartly. Now, all the characters that were shown in the submarine are shown at once. The children and mother from the first scene, Lulu and Tondrai and Anna and her daughters. This time there is a shark and an octopus as well in the scene.
For more information on digital parenting, please visit enurture.org.uk or ruddcentre.com The outro scene begins, the shark and the octopus begin to move away and we are introduced to the video credits and partners of enurture, with its website and social media handles.

Sharing research through accessible stories

To promote the research to a wider audiences series of jargon-free animations were created using friendly characters and engaging stories.

Video transcript

Audio Visual
My dad never really told me off when I was learning to ride my bike, In the intro scene, we see a girl with her dad sitting on a table using a laptop inside a room, a wall clock and a scenery picture is adorned on the right and left side of the back wall respectively.
“Why do we fall”- he’d say. So that we can pick ourselves up again, so we can become more resilient The next scene focuses on the content of a digital tablet, being used by dad and daughter, scrolling pictures of the girl learning to ride a bicycle from his father.
But when I make a mistake on the internet, he goes off on one. A hand using a smartphone chatting over the internet
He’s always checking up on what I’m doing on the internet The father is looking over to his daughter while she is on the phone, and then the girl seems to be annoyed with his activity
One day I said something mean to this person in our year five group chat Here, the screen divides into two halves, the left part displays a group chat on a smartphone and the right half, the girl is texting to the same group displayed on the screen.
And he took my phone away from me for ages The girl becomes enraged over the texting and writes something mean over the chat, the father sees her doing so, and then the camera moves to the next slide showing the girl’s phone being confiscated and naturally, she seems unjustified.
But when I was younger and learning to ride my bike The camera zooms on to the girl and a thought cloud appears over her head, with a picture of her riding a bike
I once tried to jump over a bush, and I banged my head The camera now zooms into the cloud and we enter into the scene where girl is riding the bike in a field playing and trying some sporty stunts and ultimately losing her balance and falling into a bush banging her head
He never took my bike away from me or stopped me riding with my mates or anything The father comes to the rescue of the crying daughter, her bike in the bush and stars appearing over her head helmet
he says I can have my phone back when he can join my group chats a smartphone is displayed with the “bffs” group chat open and text messages being sent and received.
I think he’s being silly, because when I go to park A hand is holding and scrolling through a list of social media websites over a smartphone.

The park scene where the girl is riding a bike with her friends, and her dad is walking a dog
He let’s me ride on my own with my mates With her friends, the girl is trying and playing bicycle mountain stunts
Last time I messed up, he was super angry, all shouty and that. It’s so annoying. Why would I ask him for help if he won’t even listen to me? Now the father is rebuking the girl, inside the same room as scene 1 and stickers labelled “blah” displayed on the screen, while the girl is shaking her head in disagreement
So, I said to him, “why do we fall dad?”, “So we can earn to pick ourselves up again.” This time the girl speaks to her father using gestures, a light bulb lights up over her head
So, we can become more digitally resilient The camera zooms towards the father, a think bubble appearing over his head displaying him with his daughter and her friends on a bike
So I say, just like learning to ride my bike dad, I’ll need you to help me when I wobble and when I fall, A hand holding a smartphone seems to be approaching the girl, and she appears to be content
because I am going to fall sometimes. I am going to stuff that is a bit risky sometimes. But I’ll learn and I’ll learn better if you help me. The girl and her father are back sitting on the table in the same room, this time girl showing her father her phone and the father seems intrigued by the display nodding in agreement towards her
Now, instead of checking up on me all the time, we talk! We’ve agreed that he can have some apps and stuff that he wants to keep me safer Smartphone display with various apps and functionalities, such as fun filter app and activity monitor
And I’ve agreed to talk to him more about what I’m doing on the internet, and not to hide things On a table, a coffee mug, a pen and a smartphone is kept, in the smartphone we see a “kids safe” zone approving the “fun filter app”
And as for me and my friends, we have lessons about using the Internet at school, and all my friends help each other just like when we ride our bikes together In this scene, we are again transported to the activity park where the girl is helping her friend with her bike gears, lush green trees all around with a bike parked near a tree
We’ve realised that we all have a role to play in learning how to recognise, manage and recover when we make mistakes on the internet The group chat opens up again on the left side of the screen, and on the other screen side, the girl is riding her bike, this time successfully jumping over the bush and her friends congratulate her for the same.
For more information on digital resilience for children and young people, please visit the following fabulous websites The outro scene is displayed, and the father and the girl both are standing on the left and right of the screen respectively, with the website information on digital resilience for young people and children and then the partnering institute’s logo appears, with the video credits at the bottom.

Video transcript

Audio Visual
Smartphones and digital technology play an integral part in our daily lives. The video opens with three scenarios in focus, dividing the screen into three parts, the first one shows a girl with a phone on her ear, the second features group chat on a smartphone, and the last one captures a boy using his laptop sitting on a table inside a room with a wall photo on the back.
But for children in the care system and caregivers getting online isn’t always that easy In the next scene, the girl from the previous scene seems worried, on the second portion a laptop’s screen displays no internet connection, while the last one features the same boy from previous scene, who now seems concerned
In 2018,19 there were around 120,000 being looked after by the state in foster care, residential care, kinship care and secure care because their families were unable to take care of them. In the visuals, statistics surface to the screen, first the number 120000 appears in the centre and then tag lines like “foster care”, “residential care”, “kinship care”, “securcare” pops up around it
These children and young people are more likely than others to suffer from digital exclusion, meaning they’re more likely to have a lack of access to laptops, tablets and smartphones, consistent reliable access to broadband and wi-fi, digital literacy or confidence Moving on, “digital exclusion”, becomes the central part and later three key points surface on the next screen: “kit”, “connection”, and “confidence”.
This means that things that many of us take for granted are often very difficult, which can impact mental health A hand holding a phone with “job search” written on it’s display, the room has a window in the background
MIE is studying for his A-levels. He was given a laptop through his local authority and uses it to complete his college work and communicate with teachers. The boy from the intro scene is shown working in the same setting, a think cloud appears above his head thinking how convenient technology makes his life
He’s worried that when he leaves education, he’ll have to return it, which would make searching for a job difficult The camera now covers the backwards angle, showing some data on the laptop
Macy is a 24-year-old care leaver with a five-year-old. A mother is holding hands with her young girl inside a room, in the background hangs a picture on the left and a window to the right, and the girl waves to the user
She moved into her place just before lockdown and didn’t have internet for months. She began to feel very isolated and down, an internet dongle The camera focuses on the mother and a laptop kept beside her, which screen displays “no internet connection”, a think cloud appears above her head and she wonders about how lonely it’d be without the internet

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from A friend provided her with a lifeline to friends and family and enabled her to access counselling and find strength through the pandemic. The camera now covers another angle of the mother, using the laptop and feeling good thinking how good it is that she finally has access to the internet
Now her daughter is at school. She can’t imagine how difficult things would be without being online. A hand holding a smartphone, a cloud bubble carrying a text message “Even school make contact through text”
Alex is 13 and in residential care and has found it tough to connect with the other children. They found community and connection by playing games online, A boy named Alex is sitting on his bed inside a room, then headphones and a laptop appears and he is thankful that he is now able to access and utilise these resources
But the residential care’s poor internet connection means that games often drop The backside angle of Alex using his laptop, which says “no internet connection”
out and Alex can’t access their main source of support and relaxation focusing again to the front side, Alex sems worried while using his laptop
Kofi is 18 and just left foster care and is sharing a flat with a friend. A boy named Kofi enters into the scene, there is a wall clock on the back wall and a kettle kept on the sidebars
When looking for a job he has to use his flatmate’s laptop to submit applications and to pay bills. Now we’re taken to the backside of Kofi’s room, his laptop screen displaying “job search”, a think cloud above his head appears, and he thinks about how he had to borrow his flatmate’s laptop who is looking at him from a distance
With his first paycheck, he bought himself a smartphone, which has made his day-to-day life so much easier We’re taken back to Kofi’s room from the front view; he’s holding a smartphone in his hand and seems happy now that he has it.
Digital access must no longer be viewed as a luxury or an added extra, A slide displaying the text “not a luxury” appears on the screen
But as a fundamental rights issue. By removing the barriers, Now the display text changes to “a fundamental right”
we can level the playing field for care. Experience young people, they are better able to fully participate in and benefit from education, employment, access, and professional support, and develop and maintain social networks with an overall benefit than the mental health and emotional wellbeing now we see all the characters, the mother and her son, Alex and Kofi all together on the screen, Alex with his laptop, Kofi and the child’s mother with their smartphone
To read about our research on care leave relationships, mental health and online spaces please visit enurture.org.uk and ruddcenter.com To read about our research on care leave relationships, mental health and online spaces please visit enurture.org.uk and ruddcenter.com

I worked with Angela of Love & Logic Studio on a series of 5 animation films to showcase our research projects. Angela was so skilled at summarising complicated research concepts/findings and making them more accessible to a general audience. We worked collaboratively on the series and I learned so much about the creative process. Every film in the series looks so slick and professional. I will definitely be recommending Love & Logic Studio for future projects and to other people looking for a talented animator!

Sui-Mee Michelle Chan See review on Google