How to use the class kit

The six Junior Detectives missions teach children aged 8 to 11 to tell fact from opinion and to spot an ad, a misleading photo and an unreliable source. They also teach what to keep to yourself and what to do with a chain message or a scary message. Each mission takes about 6 minutes. In class, with a discussion and a worksheet, it becomes a whole lesson.

Anyone can read this introduction. Lessons 1–6 are part of the kit.

What’s in the kit

• 6 lessons of 45 minutes, one for each mission: goals, links to the EU DigComp framework, materials and a minute-by-minute plan.
• A worksheet for every lesson – it prints on one side of A4, always with a line for the pupil’s name and class. The answer key for you prints separately.
• Differentiation for pupils who need more support, for younger pupils and for those who finish early.
• Homework to do together with parents – a link to the mission and a simple idea for a talk at home.
• When a child confides in you – a short procedure and verified places to get help, in case a child tells you something after the lesson.
• Diplomas for the whole class to print.

Which age groups

The missions are written for children aged 8 to 11. With younger pupils (about 8–9), read the texts on the screen aloud and shorten the worksheet (every lesson explains how). Older pupils (about 10–11) can read on their own.

The lessons fit into native-language lessons, science and social studies, computing, and personal, social and health education or class time. Each lesson works on its own, but we recommend the order 1 to 6: the first three lessons teach checking, the other three teach protecting yourself. Feel free to leave a week between lessons so that the children have time for the homework.

The Linden Street Detectives

The missions follow a team of fictional children: Emma (10, class 4A) writes for the school magazine and asks ‘Who wrote it?’. Linh (9, class 4A) plays football and the game Cubehaven. Leo (8, class 2B) takes photos, draws and loves animals. With them is Cookie the dog. The children are helped by adults they trust: Grandpa Karl, Linh’s mum, Leo’s dad and their teacher, Ms Rossi.

Everything in the missions is made up: the game Cubehaven and its gold cubes, the YouTuber Rick the Unboxer and Bzook the robo-pup. No real brands, games, YouTubers or web addresses. That way children learn the tricks, not a ‘list of baddies’.

Classroom mode: showing a mission

You can show any mission in class for free, without signing in. On the Junior Detectives course page, each mission has a Show in class button. The link is also in the plan for every lesson, for example /en/classroom/junior-detectives/fact-or-opinion.

• Controls: arrow keys ← →, the space bar or a presenter remote (PageUp / PageDown). F = full screen, Esc = stop presenting.
• Slides: the story, the explanations, the games, the Detective rule and the ‘Let’s talk’ questions. The text is large, and you can switch between light and dark mode.
• ‘Spot the trick’ games: each message has its own slide. Let the class discuss it, then click the places the class agrees on. The Show the analysis button then shows the red-pencil notes. One message in every mission is honest – the right answer is to mark nothing.
• Quiz and sorting: click the answer the class chooses, then Show the answer.
• ‘Let’s talk’: questions for the children. The tip for adults is hidden on the slide under the Tip for the teacher button – click to open it.
• The last slide shows a QR code and the mission’s address – handy for setting homework.

The slide number is in the page address. If you reload the page, you return to the same slide. Classroom mode stores nothing and doesn’t mark the mission as done for anyone.

Homework

On the Junior Detectives course page, the For teachers section has a Set as homework box: a link to the missions to copy and a QR code. Send the link to parents, for example through your school’s messaging system, or show the QR code at the end of the lesson. The missions work at home without an account, on phones too.

Every lesson has a homework idea that builds on the questions at the end of the mission. You won’t see who did the mission at home – nothing is sent to you. So don’t mark the homework. Instead, at the start of the next lesson, ask what the children talked about at home.

Diplomas

• Diploma for one child: a child who finishes all six missions at home can print a Junior Detective diploma with their first name (/en/diploma/junior-detectives).
• Diplomas for the whole class: as the kit’s owner, open /en/diploma/junior-detectives/classroom. Type your pupils’ first names, one per line (up to 40). One diploma prints per landscape A4 page. The names stay only in your browser window, are never sent anywhere and disappear when you close the page.

Give the diploma after the last lesson to everyone who took part. It is not meant as a prize for the best performance.

Children’s privacy

• Children need no account and no email address. Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, Article 8), a child can consent on their own to an online service using their personal data only from the age of 16 – or from a lower age set by their country, but never below 13. So we ask children for nothing.
• Only the browser the child played in remembers which missions are done – not our server. On a shared school computer, that applies to the computer, not to the child. Clearing the browser data deletes the progress.
• No ads, no points, no leaderboards and no countdowns.
• The name on the diploma is typed only in the browser and is never sent anywhere.

Links to learning frameworks

Every country has its own curriculum, and media literacy appears in it under different names and in different subjects. So we link the lessons to an international framework: the EU’s DigComp 3.0 – European Digital Competence Framework (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, fifth edition, 2025). Each lesson quotes the exact names of the DigComp competences it practises.

Lesson	DigComp 3.0 competences	What the children practise
1 Fact or opinion?	1.2 Evaluating information · 2.5 Digital behaviour	telling a fact that can be checked from an opinion
2 Ad or advice?	1.2 Evaluating information · 2.3 Engaging in citizenship through digital technologies	spotting an ad and its tricks
3 Photos can lie	1.2 Evaluating information · 3.1 Developing digital content	asking who took a photo, where and when; labelling an edited picture honestly
4 Who wrote it?	1.2 Evaluating information · 1.1 Browsing, searching and filtering information	the detective’s three questions about any source
5 What not to share	4.2 Protecting personal data and privacy · 2.6 Managing digital identity · 4.3 Supporting wellbeing	keeping personal details and passwords private; showing a strange message to an adult
6 Chain messages	2.2 Sharing through digital technologies · 4.3 Supporting wellbeing	not forwarding; telling an adult about a scary message

You’ll find the full wording of each competence in the lesson it belongs to.