E-Bridge Pre-School will teach the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) online safety lessons at all 30 of its centres from December, reaching nearly 3,000 K1 and K2 children, The Straits Times reported. IMDA first piloted the lessons in April with more than 100 K2 children at E-Bridge centres.
What children learn
The lessons cover four areas:
- setting boundaries
- thinking before acting
- reporting inappropriate content
- leaning on parental support
Teachers use stories, role play and games. In one class, five-year-olds were shown cartoon printouts of an angry man shouting and asked how the picture made them feel. The exercise teaches children to recognise the discomfort of seeing inappropriate content and to approach a trusted adult for help. The printouts stand in for real images online.
Children also learn to direct friends to get help and to take up non-screen habits such as jogging and visiting the library.
Who gets it and when
Skool4Kidz introduced the lessons to 800 K2 children across 35 centres in September. E-Bridge follows in December across all 30 of its centres.
IMDA plans to partner with the Early Childhood Development Agency to bring more pre-school operators on board in 2027, Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Rahayu Mahzam told the launch of the Digital for Life Festival. The lessons are part of the Screen Smart From The Start movement launched in May.
What the teachers do
Skool4Kidz centre leader Eng Zeng Ting described online safety as a habit like road safety: “Like road safety, these habits are best learnt before children need them.” E-Bridge’s director for learning, Alice Tay, compared teaching device use to showing children how to use scissors safely for crafts.
At E-Bridge, parents receive the IMDA materials at Celebration of Learning events, and in one lesson children drew up a screen-time agreement that their parents signed in school.
Digital for Life Festival
The festival opened at VivoCity on 24 October, with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, patron of the Digital for Life movement, attending. Its second weekend is at Heartbeat@Bedok on 31 October and 1 November.
