"What should we tell the children?" is a sexual health communication tool to help parents discuss difficult or embarrassing issues with their children.

The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe with the Coventry rate being 35% higher than the national average.

One half of young people recieve little or no information about sex and relationships from their parents, yet it is proven that greater parent-child communication protects against future sexual risk-taking behaviour. The Coventry Teenage Pregnancy Partnership Board's strategic aim is to involve more parents in sex and relationships communication, but recognise that parents may be under-skilled, anxious, embarrassed, or don't know where to start.

What we did:

PlayGen developed an interactive simulation for parents of children aged between five to 14 years, designed to empower them and ease discussion on sexual health matters.

Fundamentally a tool to help parents, this product provides cues for dialogue and will equip them, through role play, challenge and reward, to deal with embarrassing or awkward situations that may arise.

Each story thread requires the player to respond in a positive, negative or apathetic manner. This in turn influences the reactions of the characters that will continuously feedback into the outcome of the scenarios and provide prompts and guidelines for parent and child discussion.

Set in various locations, both private and public, with believable characters, visually stimulating graphics and appropriate content for the target audience. ‘What Should We Tell The Children? ’ will serve as an accessible tool for parents to prompt and accommodate more open and positive discussions between them and their children.

The benefits:

• Engage parents who are unable to attend a full programme for practical reasons (eg. travel, childcare).

• Engage parents who are unwilling to attend a group programme (due to e.g. embarrassment).

• Provide a delivery method that can be accessed at the individual’s rather than a prescribed pace and that fits better with competing commitments.

• Engage parents in a more interactive, immersive way.

• Provide a platform for ongoing data collection.