Teaching Filipino kids online safety through GIF storybooks

BBDO Guerrero has crafted a series of GIF-animated stories that teach kids about staying safe at home and online, in collaboration with Philippines-based children’s rights organisation Child Rights Network, non-profit child care organisation the Stairway Foundation and Facebook.

The four stakeholders collaborated on the 'GIF Learning Library', a collection of animated stories that will live on Instagram. 

So far three titles have been released, available in English and Filipino, with a live storybook reading by local celebrity mom Bianca Gonzalez. The library has also added interactive storybook quizzes and build-your-own GIF sticker pages.

Makati City-based BBDO Guerrero created each page of the 'storybooks' by layering GIF stickers on hand-illustrated backgrounds, resulting in a fully-animated scene designed to keep young children focused.

"The intention is this will be a new way to provide children with gentle, educational, and age-appropriate screen content," creative chairman David Guerrero said in a release. "The stories are housed on Instagram story highlights for accessibility and to allow parents to read with their children at their own pace. We are proud to be working with our partners on this project."

Facebook's head of safety APAC Amber Hawkes added: "We recognise that not only are we in this unique situation where parents are finding it challenging to speak with their kids about the COVID-19 pandemic, the new reality is that kids need to stay home and they’re online more often—whether for education or entertainment. At Facebook, we understand that we have a responsibility to do what we can to keep the teens that are on our platforms safe, and to provide tools and resources that can help parents engage in conversations about online safety with their kids."