NSPCC play raises awareness of harmful and explicit content online
The campaign is supported by a number of agencies including Plymouth City Council and Devon and Cornwall Police
A new school play about the impact and harm of online pornography on children and young people, supported by the NSPCC and Devon and Cornwall Police, has been performed to schools for the first time.
The play – titled Group Chat - has been commissioned by the NSPCC as part of a wider campaign in the city aiming to raise awareness about the impact of online pornography on young people and to kickstart conversations between adults and children on the subject.
In the drama three short stories are presented, each with a different dilemma for the young characters depicted. These touch on issues such as pornography, healthy relationships, sharing images and online harms.
NK Theatre Arts worked with students from schools in Plymouth including Stoke Damerel and Mill Ford schools last year to create the drama which has been performed to students this week.
The first performances for Year 7 and 8 classes took place on Thursday (January 24) at Stoke Damerel and Plymstock schools, with students from Mill Ford also attending.
At the end of each story the characters pose the question “What should I do?” and at the end the audience is asked to ponder the different scenarios and suggest what young people should do if they find themselves in those situations.
As well as the live performances the play has also been filmed and will be shared with other schools so that it can be shown to their students.
Emma Motherwell, NSPCC Local Campaigns Manager for the South West and Channel Islands, said: “This project is part of a wider campaign to get people talking about online harms and the impact of pornography on children and young people. We have been working with agencies across the city to help kick start that conversation.
"They're not easy conversations to have"
"The reaction to the play has been really positive, the young people have been really interested and engaged and taken part in the discussions afterwards. A lot of them are already aware of some of the issues being talked about but they might not have seen them presented in this way.
When talking to us, Emma added: "We know these are the issues of young people but frequently, the conversations aren't happening. They're not easy conversations to have either for the young person themselves or the adult trying to support them."
Joe Ellerton, Deputy Head and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Plymstock, said: "We have an open culture where we can talk to students about different, and sometimes difficult, issues. We have regular classes and assemblies where we look at different elements of safeguarding and make sure our students know where to go for support.
"Having a play on this particular subject is a really good way to breaking down the issue and presenting it to the students in the really accessible way. We have worked with the NSPCC in the past on a number of different issues and this seemed to be a really good way of talking about an important subject with our Year 8 students."
Emma Jane Ramsden is one of the Outreach team from NK Theatre Arts who has worked on the production. She said that it had been good to work directly with young people to create the play.
“When we met with the students they actually raised bigger questions for us which we could use as the basis of the drama. We had to work out how to condense that into a single play and that is how we came up with the three stories idea.
“It has been an amazing experience and a really good challenge for us. We feel it has been really positive to do something like this which can make a really positive impact on young people both now and in the future.”
“As well as the play we have also been holding workshops with professionals in Plymouth to help raise awareness and ensure they are comfortable talking to children and young people about this. We have also had some workshops with parents to help them to understand and give them advice as well as where they can go for support.”