Table 3 “What Should We Tell the Children?” game summary

The game provides parents with realistic scenarios of sex and relationships communication with their children, all based around a virtual house. Once registered, players are then able to select from two versions of the game – one for parents of younger children (aged 5–9) and one for older (aged 10–14). Both versions have similar content and the same gameplay, with slight dialogue differences to reflect the nature of conversations at different ages. The game is a first-person role play, with players proceeding through rooms of a virtual house and talking to ‘their children’. In each room they are faced with a different situation such as children asking awkward questions or finding objects of concern in their room (e.g., messages on social networking sites). Scenarios include:

1. Child asks parent to explain a documentary in which lions are mating.

2. Parent finds variety of items (e.g., sexualised magazine, social media messages) in child’s bedroom

3. Child asks parents about same sex relationships

4. Child asks about parents arguing

5. Child discusses emerging feelings for someone at school

In each situation, the player must choose how to respond, and the scenario evolves accordingly with the child reacting to the parents’ choices. Scenes are interspersed with short quizzes to increase knowledge and raise awareness of key issues. Players receive feedback on their choices at the end of each scene and full feedback at the end of the game with tailored advice on how to improve their skills. Voice-overs for the child characters and atmospheric music were added to make the scenarios more engaging. All spoken text was displayed on screen so the game can be played with or without sound. The game takes approximately 1 h to complete, but can be played at the parent’s chosen pace.

The game can be viewed at https://healthinterventions.coventry.ac.uk/sash/-projects-parents-game.aspx