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The Big Money Lesson: Gaming, Online Shopping & Social Media

Teenage girl wearing over-the-head headphones and looking at a video on her mobile phone

Watch The Big Money Lesson

Free to Play? The True Cost of Gaming, Online Shopping, and Social Media

Money Ready hosted a second live webinar in the Big Money Lesson Series on 5th November 2025, to help children and young adults explore their digital habits and the costs involved; from spending money in games and impulse buying, to spotting advertising and smartphone addictions.  

Take part with your group

If you missed out on the live webinar, we’ve recorded a shortened version of the lesson which you can watch with your class or group in your own time. Our expert trainer Katie covers the exact same topics and activities, and instructs you on the times to pause the video to continue the discussions in your classroom.

If you are playing the recording of the lesson in your class in your own time, we anticipate it should take approximately 40 minutes, allowing time to pause the video for discussions and activities.

Money Ready's webinar The Big Money Lesson holding screen with trainer Katie

Follow up activities 

Hopefully your group are thinking more critically about their online spending habits after taking part in The Big Money Lesson. Keep the conversations going with our follow up activities: 

  • Discussion topics:  
    • The advertising industry is worth $1 trillion. If you had that money, what would you do with it? 
    • Y Gam have found that in the UK, boys ages 15-17 spend on average nearly 34 hours a week playing video games – do you think this is too much? Or is it a fine amount? 
    • David Beckham earns up to £228,000 per Instagram post. How much would someone need to pay you to advertise your least favourite food on social media? 
  • ‘Spot the Ad’ activity: Use the graphics to play a quick game with your group to look for adverts on social media. Each of the three examples has one regular post and one sponsored ad. Can your group spot the indicators that some posts are adverts? What are the things that influencers and content creators should use to demonstrate a post on their social media is a paid advertisement? 

🔗 Download the activities: You can use these digital copies or download print outs. 

Spot the ad activity: two mobile phones showing gaming and beauty social media posts

Download the activities

Choose from digital versions or print-outs.

Download the resources

Thank you! We hope to see you at the next Big Money Ready Lesson! 

You can also take part in our first Big Money Lesson from June 2025 teaching teens how to spot scams & stay safe online: Watch the first lesson here.

Share your feedback

We would love to hear about your experience of The Big Money Lesson. Feedback from participants helps us shape our future work, so your answers are greatly beneficial. If you are a teacher or group leader who led the session, please share your feedback with us below

Send us your feedback

If you are able to get feedback from your class, we’d also love to hear what young learners thought of the lesson. Please share this form with your group or complete it with them.

 

Register for future sessions

If you want to be the first to hear about future Big Money Ready Lessons, register your interest here.

The Big Money Lesson sign-up