We believe that young people deserve to have the information, resources, and skills they need to protect their health and build their future — without shame or judgment – and that their parents and caregivers play a key role in that learning process. In this series of nine animated videos, Planned Parenthood encourages and empowers parents and caregivers to open the lines of communication with their children on tricky topics like gender identity, porn, sex, sexual abuse, and bullying. These videos for parents of children ages 3-13 provide quick tips, conversation starters, and background knowledge so that parents feel prepared to support their kids and help them make healthy decisions.
We combined the expert knowledge of Planned Parenthood sex educators with online user research to select nine topics that we knew parents would find useful. Each video is between two and three minutes long and tackles a single topic for a specific age range, so each video is digestible and relevant to the viewer's interests. Produced by Imaginary Lava, the animations are colorful, tracked with cheerful music, and feature a diverse cast of people and families.
The first set of videos, for parents and caregivers of preschoolers, were released as part of Planned Parenthood's Sex Education Is campaign in October. The most popular video in the series, "How To Know If Your Kid Is Transgender," has over 20k views on Facebook and 13k views on YouTube. Another video, "How To Talk To Preschoolers About Anatomy & Body Safety," has over 14k views on Facebook, and received positive comments from users like this one:
"This is so important. I've always been open with my kids about body parts and bodily consent. This is why, when my oldest was 3, she was able to tell me she was molested and how. Because she had the words we were able to have a good case when we went to the police and he was arrested. Pleased, teach your tykes."
Planned Parenthood has since released videos for parents of elementary and middle school kids. The full series can be viewed on YouTube.
