There are many ways to do small media projects with kids. Especially uncomplicated are projects around photography. Because there is actually a camera in every family, whether in the smartphone or as its own device. Plus, you don’t have to depend on the Internet or a power outlet (when the battery is charged) to take photos. So some ideas can also be implemented quite easily outside! What kind of camera you use for a small photo project, whether photo camera, smartphone or tablet does not matter in most cases. You can get creative together with your child and try out what can be photographed besides selfies and vacation snapshots – with the photo camera on the go.
Anyone who takes photos themselves knows that the view through the camera lens is often a different one. When photographing, perspectives and proportions change completely. Go on a journey of discovery with your child. Macro photography, for example, is particularly well suited for this. That is, you get very close to objects. If available, you can also use the zoom of the camera to help you. Flowers, insects and other things look much bigger with it. This way, you can discover things together that you didn’t consider before. No less exciting is taking photos from a great distance or height. You can go in search of the best places to take pictures.
You may know this photo action from your vacation in Paris or Pisa. Photos are taken there that look as if the leaning tower is being propped up or the Eiffel Tower is being gently held between index finger and thumb.
The technique is called forced perspective. This allows you to make objects appear larger or smaller than they actually are by positioning yourself at a certain distance. This often results in funny photos that do not correspond to reality.
Such perspective photos can be easily implemented at home or outside, because any building or object can be forced into funny and crazy perspectives. Just try it out with your kids – “play” with different perspectives.
For a fun YouTube video to get inspired, click here:
Do you still know the photo love stories from Bravo? Behind it is the simple comic principle, combining images and short texts. Photos always tell stories and children love stories. Think up a little story together and package it as a photo story. This way, children can also try out their acting talent. It is even easier to create collages on a specific theme, such as “animals” or “nature”. With various apps, you can easily edit, arrange images and add text. Among other things, “Pic’s Art Photo and Collage” and “Edit Pic Collage Photo” let you edit pictures, create collages and insert stickers. “Snapseed”, on the other hand, relies on filters and correcting sharpness and contrast.
If your child has taken particularly successful photos, he or she can present them to other children in a children’s photo community such as Knipsclub or Kamerakinder. While on Instagram and the like, it’s usually the shining filter, a virtual wreath of flowers on the head or the rushing sea in the background that leads to lots of likes, the Knipsclub or the camera kids are all about the essentials: taking photos. Many photo activities and the nomination of the “Photo of the Month” encourage people to participate and try things out. In the digital exhibition, images can be marked with “Like” and commented on. Children up to about 12 years old can exchange ideas with each other. A kids’ photo community is a safe place to try out social network options in a protected space before your child posts photos and more on Instagram and other social apps starting in their teens. Talk to your child about what kinds of photos they share and which ones may be nobody’s business.
Another great idea, for advanced photographers is painting with light, also called light painting. A guide on how to do this with children can be found at“Growing up well with media“.
Even more ideas and tips for photographing with children can also be found at Knipsclub and Kamerakindern.
Your child loves taking pictures and maybe wants to be a photographer one day? For Instagram it may still be too young, but in the Knipsclub it can learn more about photography in a child-friendly way and exchange ideas with others.
The photo community Knipsclub is suitable for 8- to 12-year-olds. Knipsclub is a platform where they can publish their own photos, share them with others, and talk about them. Knipsclub offers a protected space on the Internet for this purpose. Through animations, video clips and hands-on activities, children learn more about photography and safe behavior on the Internet, e.g. on topics such as Data protection, copyrights and secure communication with others. In the “Knipstipps” tips are given, e.g., for the correct picture detail, the correct light or the use of filters and how one can work on a picture.
Many children love picture stories or comics and like to draw. With photos, they can discover their environment in a new way and learn how to deal with (digital) technology. Children at this age are curious and want to know a lot.Many are already on the Internet. At Knipsclub they can gain their first experience and learn what they need to watch out for, e.g. that you can’t simply upload pictures of others to the upload to the Internet.
Take your child’s wish seriously if they like to share their photos and be independent on the web. Social networks such as Instagramoffer little protection and no guidance for children and are only recommended from a minimum age of 13. There, they may encounter advertising, cyberbullying, and cybergrooming, which can overwhelm or frighten them.
In Knipsclub, you can slowly introduce your child to using the Internet. You must upload a written consent form to register. Familiarize your child with the rules on the net and discover the platform together. Start a collaborative photo project. Here you will find some ideas for this.
The offer Internet ABC is aimed at children, parents and teachers. Children learn how to navigate the Internet safely on their own through playful learning modules, and parents get lots of tips and support for their children’s media education.
Internet-ABC supports children of primary school age in gradually learning how to use the Internet safely. Interactive learning modules on various topics such as chatting, data privacy or social media are offered for this purpose. Through puzzles, games and animal companions, children learn to recognize and deal with dangers on the Internet in a playful way. The offer is also aimed at parents and educational professionals and supports them in teaching media literacy on the Internet. In addition to tips and explanations, there is concrete assistance such as the media usage contract or the driver’s license for the Net. An extensive lexicon explains terms on the net like post or spam.
Internet ABC enables children to learn independently. Complex media topics are presented in a playful and child-friendly way. In this way, children learn to use the Internet independently. The games and puzzles are fun and the website is constantly updated. Particularly popular is the so-called surfing license, in which children obtain a “driver’s license for the net” by passing self-tests.
There is also the possibility to comment on posts such as the joke of the month and thus exchange ideas with each other. The comments are first checked for insults or private details and only then released.
The Internet-ABC provider of the same name is an association in which, among others, the state media authorities in Germany are members. Internet-ABC does not use advertising and is free of charge. The providers of the Internet-ABC website also explain exactly what data is collected from users and what happens to it. They claim to use only a necessary cookie and to keep personal data under lock and key.
Independent media use is important for children and promotes media literacy. Services such as the Internet ABC enable children to participate in the Internet and support you in teaching your child to use it responsibly. Such offers are therefore a useful addition to their media education at home.
Even if children can navigate sites like Internet-ABC on their own responsibility, it is important that you discover the Internet together with your children for the time being and that you are there to help with questions and problems. Thus, although the website warns against leaving the Internet ABC when clicking on links. Nevertheless, your child may encounter inappropriate content on other websites. Therefore, talk to your child and accompany him or her as often as possible when using media. Protective programs like jusprog, which block content that is not age-appropriate, are also helpful.
Equally important are common rules and time limits in which your child can move alone on the net. They can get tips and help with media education via the Internet-ABC website or other offers and stay informed about current phenomena and topics. In addition, the exchange with other parents can be helpful.
Through fragFINN, children only surf on checked Internet sites. As a result, they do not encounter inappropriate content.
The search engine for children displays only harmless content in the results based on verified websites. The examination of the Internet sites is carried out by a media pedagogical team. The children’s search engine is used to find children’s sites and harmless adult sites (e.g. zoo sites, club sites). The children’s pages are played out first in the search results.
On the fragFINN homepage, children can also find surfing tips on many different topics. Children can get involved as fragFINN children’s reporters and meet famous personalities.
When displaying search results, websites are identified by the icons “Children”, “Knowledge” and “International”. This makes the search results easier to classify for children.
When using the search function on the website and in the app, the user’s search query is sent directly to the fragFINN server in Germany. No user data is collected or stored in the process.
The fragFINN app can also be installed on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets.
Children’s search engines offer a safe introduction to the world of the Internet. They can be a good preparation for using common and well-known search engines. The pre-testing of all content provides a very high level of security for your child. Nevertheless, you should accompany your child, especially when using it for the first time, and explore the search engine together. This way you can explain important functions for the search in more detail.
If your child finds a page among the results that scares him/her, he/she can report it using the “Report page” button. The alarms received are checked daily. Your child also has the opportunity to suggest websites. The media education team checks the pages and can approve them for the children’s search engine if necessary. Moreover, the search engine is particularly compatible with additional child protection solutions such as JusProg.
Further information for parents can be found here: eltern.fragFINN.de
Playing with friends or family is fun. Online games, especially in times of Corona, are a nice way to do something together with friends and other family members without having to meet. Here’s a little guidance for parents and grandparents to navigate the world of online games.
Interaction with friends and family members is very important for children. Along the way, games can improve general knowledge, encourage strategic thinking, teamwork and creativity, or simply be fun! Many online games are free and playable both on the smartphone and on the computer via the browser.
Pen-and-paper games: A video connection via computer or smartphone is sufficient as a technical prerequisite for an evening of games together: Each player takes a pad and pen and pen-and-paper games can be played together as usual. These include games that require only a small amount of material, such as city-land-river or sink ships. Alternatively, you can play it at stadtlandflussonline.net or battleship-game.org.
Game apps: From Uno to Monopoly – many well-known card and board games can nowadays also be purchased as apps in the PlayStore or AppStore for a few euros. The knowledge game app Quizduell, where you can compete against your friends, has enjoyed great popularity for several years. Depending on the app, advertising clips can interrupt the game process little to significantly. It’s best to try out an app before the online game night you have planned.
Board and card games: Various classics such as checkers, backgammon and memory are offered for free by the English site Playingcards.io. Without registration it is possible to invite other players via a link. At schach-spielen.eu you can play either against the computer or with a friend via an invitation link. Board games for printing are available on Print & Play from Asmodee.
Drawing and guessing: On skribbl.io, one person draws a word on the screen, which the other players have to follow live and guess as quickly as possible. When setting up the game, set the language to German (Deutsch), invite friends via link and off you go!
Strategy games such as Settlers of Catan or Risk are also available as a free app and can be played with all friends who have registered with their e-mail address. However, extensions and premium version have to be paid. The free basic version of Settlers of Catancan also be played via the web browser at catanuniverse.com.
Especially with free online games, contact with unfamiliar players can happen quickly. Cybergrooming is a possible danger. Parents should therefore accompany younger children in particular during their first experiences with online games. At the same time, parents can look out for hidden costs, e.g. through in-app purchases, check information on data protection and the operator of the site and, if possible, make appropriate security settings.
On many game pages you can expect advertisements and pop-up windows from external sites that have nothing to do with the game. These can also be advertisements for games that are not age-appropriate or websites with content that is not child-friendly. On the portal Spielaffe.de, which is aimed at children, there is less of a risk of this happening, but the large amount of advertising for other games can be very annoying here as well. Questionable is the subdivision into categories such as ‘girl games’, where games about hairstyles, decorating and baking are listed. Such gender images in media can have a problematic impact on children’s development. A selection of child-friendly online games is also available at Seitenstark.
Creating your own animated film is great fun, but it is also time-consuming and you need the right technical equipment such as a tripod and a tablet. There are alternatives to the cartoon studio in the children’s room on the net, with which your child can create their own cartoon on the computer.
With an online animation studio you can quickly create your own movie. In a preview window, you can edit the individual images that will later be played back one after the other. Only very small changes are made to the figures and objects per frame so that movements appear smooth when played back. With a mouse click all objects can be dragged and moved smaller and larger. There are three online animation studios, all of which invite you to make animated films on the net and some of which have different functions.
In the animation studio of JUKI on Kindersache there is a variety of colorful figures and backgrounds. Here your child can also insert music and add sounds to the actions; whether snoring, footsteps or hiccups. There are even elements that move: With falling leaves or pattering rain, your child has the opportunity to determine the season in their own cartoon.
In Trickino, not only can existing characters and objects be accessed, but your child can also draw objects themselves in the drawing studio, which other children can then use for their animated film. Finally, the animated film is created in the animation studio. With Tickino, your child has the additional option to upload audios and even edit them on multiple audio tracks.
This page was developed from an animated film project with students: Trickmisch – The mobile language laboratory. They drew their own figures and objects and created animated films using the Legetrick technique. At trixmix.tv, all children can create their own animated film online.
Your child can use an infinite number of drawings here: from the stovepipe, to the lawn mower, to the screwdriver. The icons are sorted by topics, and there is also a search function. Of course, there is also a large number of colorful background images and some audios and sounds that can be inserted.
On all the presented sites your child can publish their own cartoon and also view the works of other children. Overall, the platforms offer a simple, yet creative alternative to traditional animation. Maybe that’s a good place to start before you start filming in your own child’s room.
You as parents care for your children and want to protect them from bad influences. Did you know that our basic law also helps you with this?
It stipulates that the state must protect the personal rights of all people. In the case of children and young people, this includes protecting them from media influences that could be bad or dangerous for their development. The precise regulations governing the protection of minors from harmful media are set out in various laws, primarily the Protection of Minors Act and the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors from Harmful Media.
The Basic Law also states that you, as parents, ultimately decide what is best for your child. This means that parents are also allowed to give their children access to media contrary to the rules of youth media protection. For you, then, the protection of minors from harmful media is an aid that you can use as a guide when it comes to dealing with media in the family.
As a guiding framework, the protection of minors in the media has guidelines that media creators and retailers are expected to follow. At the same time, they are also helpful for families. These include, for example, the age ratings for media that have been familiar for decades from the cinema sector, but which also exist for DVDs and computer games. The intended age ratings are “released without age restriction”, “from 6”, “from 12”, “from 16 years” and “no youth rating”. On television, age ratings can be identified by an announcement like this one: “The following program is not suitable for children or young adults under the age of 16.”
It is important to note that age ratings are not age recommendations. “Free from 12 years” does not mean that a computer game is particularly suitable for twelve-year-olds, but merely that the game does not impair or endanger the development of this age group.
In the family, you can use the age ratings for movies or computer games very well as a conversation starter to discuss with your children what they like about a medium and how they deal with difficult content. Such conversations give you a chance to see what is actually overwhelming your child or scaring him or her, and then you can respond accordingly.
The protection of minors from harmful media is more difficult on the Internet than in other media, because the Internet is a global medium whose content cannot be adequately controlled by national laws. Filter programs block content harmful to minors on home devices. However, there is no one hundred percent protection. In addition, other risks such as communication between users are not adequately covered. Filtering programs can therefore help family Internet use, but you should not rely on them exclusively. Be sure to learn the safety and age settings of offers and services such as search engines, video platforms or within apps and use them appropriately for your child’s age. If you come across illegal Internet content or content that is harmful to minors, you can report it to the FSM complaints office. Staff will review these for a possible violation and take the necessary action.
It is helpful to introduce children to suitable and age-appropriate Internet offerings and to guide them in finding such offerings themselves. Children’s search engines such as blinde-kuh.de and fragFINN.de are a great help here. Especially in families with younger children, it is advisable to set up one of the children’s search engines as the start page, so that after starting the browser, children are in a familiar environment where they can independently search for age-appropriate pages. Recommendation services for pedagogically tested children’s sites such as gutes-aufwachsen-mit-medien.de, klick-tipps.net or seitenstark.de are also good starting points for parents and children to find safe and pedagogically valuable offers on the Internet.
Children of daycare and elementary school age especially like animated films. And the great thing is, it doesn’t take much to make your own at home: smartphone or tablet, construction paper and pens, and the kids’ room becomes a film studio.
Animated films are based on the stop motion technique. You know this from flipbooks, for example. Many images that differ only in details are shown in quick succession. One perceives the small changes on each individual image as a whole as movement. The opening and closing credits of “Sandmännchen” and the stories of “Shaun the Sheep” are also produced with this technology.
Does your child like to paint or tinker, or does he or she prefer to play with Duplo and Lego? Such things can also be used wonderfully for the production of the first own film. Then you’re ready to go!
And now… have fun trying it out!
Your child is approximately between 6 and 12 years old and already on the Internet? Children of this age should be accompanied by adults when surfing. Make sure your child only gets to websites that are safe and suitable for children. Germany has a comparatively uniquely large and diverse children’s website landscape. Do you and your children know and use them? So-called children’s search engines are quite well known. If you enter a search term, you are usually referred to websites that are specifically aimed at children. The best-known German children’s search engine is fragFINN. There are many other web offers for children. You can find out how to recognize a good children’s site and how child-friendly your child’s favorite site is. We have compiled the most important criteria for good children’s sites for you:
If your child surfs on good children’s sites, he or she can learn how to recognize reputable websites. If your child would like to find out in a playful way how fit and safe he or she already is on the Internet, he or she can take the “internet license” at the Internet ABC: To the surfing license quiz
Kindersache.de is an Internet service for children of the German Children’s Fund. The website features current and child-friendly news, the JUKI video portal, an animated film studio and numerous hands-on activities for children.
Here, children will find age-appropriate information and interactive offerings, e.g. They can
The topic of children’s rights is given a particularly large amount of space at kindersache.de: It is described in a child-friendly way, what it is at all and which children’s rights there are.
In the “Join in” section, children can become active themselves: Write an article or a story, create a cartoon, upload their own video or tell a joke. More fun is provided by various games and puzzles on the site.
Kindersache.de is particularly suitable for children, as all content is selected and reviewed by media educators. Also the exchange with others is safe, because comments and etc. are checked before publication. In this way, children learn about the opportunities for participation on the Internet in a protected space.
As with all services used by children up to the age of 12, you should also find out about kindersache.de and ideally explore the site together with your child. It is important for your child to share their experiences with you. Talking about the content on kindersache.de, such as children’s rights, promotes your child’s autonomy and knowledge. .
At www.helles-koepfchen.de you can access a special search engine which, on the basis of a checked website catalog, displays only websites suitable for children and young people in the search results. This is to prevent adolescents from encountering content that may disturb or frighten them.
Similar to a news site for adults, the portal already offers a selection of interesting, child-friendly articles, games, etc. on the homepage. These are divided into different categories: Knowledge, Reportage, Games & Fun and Community.
Your child can also become active on the site as a youth reporter and create their own articles. By registering, your child can also sign up for the community and interact with others in the discussion forum.
As with all offers for children, you as parents should accompany your child during their first experiences with the Internet and be the contact person. For example, on your first visit, take a look at what’s available with your child and discuss the possible features and diverse offerings.
The children’s search engine www.helles-koepfchen.de contains advertising. Please discuss with your child the difference between an advertisement and an article created by an independent editorial team.
Are you or your child looking for inspiration for exciting websites that are also kid-friendly? ThenSeitenstark is the right thing!
Seitenstark.de is a children’s website that lists and presents a variety of child-friendly Internet sites. These pages deal with many different topics, such as the environment and nature, music and film, art and culture, politics, religion. Seitenstark is an association of now more than 60 children’s sites that are united by high standards of quality and protection of children and young people in the media.
In addition, Seitenstark provides important information on the topic of “Security on the Internet”. Your child will learn more about the Internet in general, about bullying and will receive advice on how to handle their own data.
When you gradually release your child more independently into the world of the Internet, he or she should already have learned a few rules and have safe places to go to find offers suitable for children. For this, Seitenstark is a great option.
The website is divided into a children’s section and a section for parents and teachers. You can let your child surf alone in the kids’ area with a clear conscience, which gives them confidence and teaches them media literacy. In principle, however, you should ensure that the discussed media use times are adhered to and that you remain in communication with your child. And you yourself can also get information on the site.
