Digital boundary activities help teens practise choices about online consent, contact, privacy and availability. These ten clinician-led activities use fictional scenarios: nobody needs to show an account, reveal a password, share messages or disclose a personal experience. Each activity ends with a choice or sentence the teen can use in an appropriate situation.
Use fictional examples and real choice
Offer passing, observing and third-person answers. Explain confidentiality and its limits in language the group understands. Keep examples platform-neutral and suitable for the young person’s age, access and context. This is skills practice, not an account inspection or a substitute for responding to abuse.
If threats, coercion, harassment or an unsafe adult contact emerge, pause the activity and follow your safeguarding and risk process. Do not ask a teen to confront the person, forward intimate content or investigate for you. For current online-safety guidance, use eSafety’s young people resources.
Your broader teen-boundary activities guide covers boundary awareness, general scripts and relationship patterns. The activities here focus on particular online decisions and the limits of consent and access.
10 digital boundary activities for teen sessions
Allow around five to eight minutes for one activity, adjusting to the session. Printed scraps are optional; all scenarios can be read aloud.
1. Sort the permission scope
Purpose: Distinguish permission to take, keep and share an ordinary image.
Materials: Three labels: take, send privately, post publicly.
Therapist words: “What did this person actually agree to, and what would need a new question?”
- Read a fictional scene: Sam agrees to a photo with a friend after a club activity.
- Ask the teen to sort which actions have permission and which still need a conversation.
- Practise asking a clear question and accepting a no without pressure.
Example: Permission to take a photo does not decide whether it can go in a group chat or a public post. The activity uses an ordinary image, not intimate content.
Review: “What changes when the audience changes? What would make asking feel pressured?”
Adapt: Use objects instead of photos. Do not ask for a real image or a public disclosure of consent experiences.
2. Negotiate reply expectations
Purpose: Practise an availability agreement without monitoring anyone’s response time.
Materials: Two fictional roles and an ordinary message.
Therapist words: “How could these friends set an expectation that leaves both people room to choose?”
- Give one role a busy evening and the other a wish for contact.
- Have the teen propose an ordinary reply expectation and a separate route for urgent help.
- Switch roles and negotiate wording that is realistic rather than guaranteed.
Example: “I often reply after dinner. If you need immediate help, use a trusted adult or the support route we’ve agreed.”
Review: “Is this a preference, an agreement or a demand? What happens when plans change?”
Adapt: Start with a fictional friendship. Do not run a real response-delay experiment or ask the teen to manage someone else’s crisis.
3. Respond to an access demand
Purpose: Separate trust from sharing account credentials.
Materials: A fictional demand card; no account details.
Therapist words: “How could someone keep the friendship and still refuse access—or decide this needs support?”
- Read: “If you trusted me, you’d give me your login.”
- Offer three response styles: brief refusal, refusal plus alternative, or seek support.
- Role-play a chosen response once, then discuss what escalating pressure would change.
Example: “I don’t share logins. We can choose something else to do together.” No password is written or demonstrated.
Review: “What makes this pressure different from an ordinary request?”
Adapt: Use third-person answers. If the demand reflects real coercion, stop role-play and assess support needs.
4. Interrupt a forwarding chain
Purpose: Practise a boundary around sharing an ordinary screenshot or message.
Materials: A made-up group-chat scene.
Therapist words: “You have received something. What choices do you still have before passing it on?”
- Describe a fictional screenshot of an ordinary private conversation being offered to a wider group.
- Ask the teen to choose between forwarding, declining, asking permission or seeking support, and explain the context.
- Practise a short response that does not repeat or expose the private content.
Example: “I’m not passing on their private chat.” The teen can decline without proving they are loyal by sharing.
Review: “Whose permission matters? How could a refusal avoid creating another screenshot?”
Adapt: Use a harmless invented message. Do not collect actual screenshots or circulate intimate or abusive material.
5. Plan a game-chat exit
Purpose: Build an exit and support plan for an online interaction.
Materials: Three labels: stay with a limit, leave, get support.
Therapist words: “What tells this player that the situation has changed, and what can they choose next?”
- Read an ordinary fictional gaming scene that becomes unpleasant or pressuring.
- Sort possible responses by context: set a limit, use available mute or block controls, leave, or seek help.
- Rehearse a brief exit sentence and identify a suitable support route.
Example: “I’m leaving this chat now.” Leaving does not require persuading everyone to agree first.
Review: “Which choice is practical? When would help be more useful than another reply?”
Adapt: Discuss controls generically; do not instruct a teen to open an account, bypass age restrictions or contact the person again.
Optional reflection resource: Digital Boundaries Bundle is a four-page PDF for exploring online access, sharing and response expectations. It offers a written follow-up for teens who want one; it is not a deck containing these ten activities.
Get the ready to use online boundaries worksheets
6. Map who needs access
Purpose: Make a specific choice about location or personal-information access.
Materials: A fictional activity, three audience labels and blank scraps if wanted.
Therapist words: “Who actually needs this information for this purpose, and for how long?”
- Use a fictional after-school arrangement; include no real address or live location.
- Compare sharing the necessary detail with one suitable person, a wider group or nobody.
- Choose a purpose-limited option and rehearse declining a broader request.
Example: A pickup detail may be needed by an agreed caregiver; that does not automatically mean a peer group needs continuous location access.
Review: “What is the purpose? Who chose the audience? Could permission be changed?”
Adapt: Use a fictional meeting place. Do not ask teens to reveal location settings or imply that family arrangements are the same for everyone.
7. Design a notification agreement
Purpose: Connect attention preferences to a feasible routine.
Materials: A drawn or imagined day divided into a few ordinary moments.
Therapist words: “Where do you want attention to go, and which alerts actually need to reach you?”
- Choose a fictional or non-private routine such as study time, travel or rest.
- Sort alerts into needed, optional and can-wait categories, without looking at the teen’s phone.
- Agree one optional change and check practical needs before trying it.
Example: A teen chooses a short study period with optional group-chat alerts paused, while preserving necessary contact arrangements.
Review: “Was the choice yours? What access or caring responsibilities change the plan?”
Adapt: Keep the activity hypothetical. Avoid a universal screen-time target or promising that switching notifications off solves distress.
8. Build a proportionate repair sequence
Purpose: Practise responding when an ordinary sharing boundary has been crossed.
Materials: Four action labels: stop, remove if possible, acknowledge, ask what repair is wanted.
Therapist words: “What can this person do now without making the spread bigger?”
- Describe an ordinary photo shared beyond the agreed audience.
- Order practical repair steps and discuss which are within the sharer’s control.
- Rehearse a concise acknowledgement and removal request without blaming the person pictured.
Example: “I shared that without checking. I’ve removed my post and asked the group not to pass it on.” Do not promise every copy can be recovered.
Review: “What can be repaired? What would be another burden on the person affected?”
Adapt: For threats or intimate content, move to specialist guidance and safeguarding support; do not use this simple repair game as the response.
9. Set an emotional-availability boundary
Purpose: Distinguish friendship support from being constantly responsible for another person.
Materials: A fictional late-night message and a support-route label.
Therapist words: “How can this friend be caring without becoming the only person responsible?”
- Use a fictional, non-graphic scene involving a friend repeatedly asking for late-night emotional support.
- Rehearse a caring limit and a suitable alternative support route.
- Discuss when immediate risk changes the situation and calls for adult or urgent support.
Example: “I care about you. I can talk tomorrow; tonight I need to rest. Let’s involve someone who can help now if you’re unsafe.”
Review: “Does the sentence offer care without promising round-the-clock contact?”
Adapt: Use the clinician’s established local support plan. Never assign a teen responsibility for assessing or managing another person’s suicide risk.
10. Sort ordinary pressure from a support problem
Purpose: Recognise when assertiveness practice should give way to help.
Materials: Fictional cards: a declined invite, repeated demands, a threat, an unwanted adult contact.
Therapist words: “Which situations might need a simple answer, and which should not be handled alone?”
- Present the fictional situations without graphic detail.
- Sort them into ordinary negotiation, ongoing pressure and needs-support categories; allow discussion rather than one rigid answer.
- For a support scenario, identify a safe person or reporting route instead of drafting a confrontation.
Example: A friend suggesting another time is different from someone threatening to expose private information. The latter calls for support, not a better comeback.
Review: “What changed the category? What if the first person asked for help is unavailable?”
Adapt: Let the teen answer about a fictional character. Have a backup support route and follow clinical safeguarding procedures for real disclosures.
End with one chosen next step
Ask: “Which decision here feels useful to remember?” Let the teen choose one sentence, one question to ask before sharing, or one support route. A private rehearsal is enough; do not require a real-world confrontation or evidence from their device. At the next session, review whether the plan fit their circumstances.
If you want a written reflection alongside the conversation, see the four-page Digital Boundaries Bundle. For wider work on limits and communication, use the boundary-setting guide or the boundaries worksheet guide.
Common questions
Do teens need to show their phones?
No. These activities use fictional examples and do not require account access, screenshots, passwords or disclosure of private messages.
Can I use these in a group?
Yes, when the group is suitable. Offer pass and observer roles, use fictional characters, avoid identifying stories, and explain confidentiality limits before starting.
Is a boundary the same as controlling someone else?
A useful boundary describes a choice, limit or action within the person’s control. It does not guarantee another person’s behaviour or justify coercion.
What if the issue involves threats or intimate images?
Pause ordinary skills practice and follow safeguarding procedures. Use current official guidance and appropriate support; do not ask the teen to circulate content, investigate or confront the person.
Does the paid bundle contain these activities?
No. The current listing describes a four-page reflection PDF. All ten activities are explained here and can be used without purchasing it.
Sources and further reading
The sources below inform the clinical or safeguarding principles. The activity formats and example dialogue are original suggestions, rather than a validated treatment programme.