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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

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Supported by Ygam

Play risky or not risky

Test your knowledge of what’s safe and what’s not in this quick game
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Printed copies of the activity card sheets
  • Printed copies of the ‘Risk category’ sheets
  • Tables
Risky Or Not Risky Activity Game Scenarios
PDF – 16.9MB
Download Risky Or Not Risky Activity Game Scenarios
Risky Or Not Risky Risk Category Labels
PDF – 389.5KB
Download Risky Or Not Risky Risk Category Labels

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely. 

Setting up this activity

  • Print out the activity cards, with enough for one per pair or group. 
  • Make sure the sets of cards can be easily identified and told apart, such as by printing them onto different coloured paper or marking each set with a different coloured dot. This makes sure they don’t get mixed up while doing the activity.
  • Print off copies of the ‘Risk category labels’ and put them on four tables around the space. 

Running this activity

  1. Gather everyone together and explain that you’re going to play a game to test their risk and safety judgement.
  2. Ask everyone to get into pairs or teams, depending on how many sets of cards you have.
  3. Ask everyone to think about what makes something risky and what harms can arise from taking these risks. Also to think about each activity on its own and not to compare them.
  4. Give each pair or team a set of cards and ask them to find a space. Explain that they need to sort the cards into these categories, depending on how they view them: 

    Very safe, no risk of physical or mental harm 

    Fairly safe, there’s a small risk of mental or physical harm

    Somewhat risky, there’s a possible risk of mental or physical harm

    Very risky,  there’s a serious risk of physical or mental harm, so you’d need to seek help and possibly call 999

  5. Once each group has decided, they can then put the cards on the corresponding table with the matching sign for the level of risk.
  6. Once all the teams have placed the cards on the tables, ask everyone about each card, where they ranked it and why. Describe what makes it risky and what harms might arise from these activities. 
  7. During the discussion, see if any groups change their minds as to where the ranked them and why. 
  8. Now, ask if anyone else can think of any more examples and ask the group to rank them. 
  9. You could also play this as a Corners style game, where you place the signs in a different area, read out the card and everyone moves to the sign they think it fits with best. 

Reflection

This activity was all about using your judgement to see which activities were riskier than others. It also helped everyone to communicate and work as a team. What was it like trying to assess the different activities? Were some easier than others? Which one was the hardest or caused most debate?  How did you give your partner or teammates the chance to give their opinions and be heard? Did you make sure to listen to each other? How did you decide fairly? Did you vote if you had a divided opinion, or did you make sure it was fair in another way?  

A lot of these activities mentioned betting or gambling, especially on games, apps and in sports. Can you remember any of the cards that mentioned gambling? Where did you place them?  

Does anyone know what gambling is? Gambling is when you risk money (or something of value) in a game or a bet in the hope of winning money or a prize. There are lots of different types of gambling. For example, arcade games, loot boxes on video games, sports bets, scratch cards, lotteries, roulette machines and some free-to-play games online are all forms of gambling.  

Gambling’s very risky. It’s all about odds and risk, and the likelihood or chance of you getting what you want, but you may end up losing lots of money, especially when it feels like you’re just playing a game. Can you think of any risks associated with gaming, sports and gambling? They may encourage people to start having an addiction towards gambling and betting, which can cause money problems. Have you seen gambling advertised anywhere or tried something that felt like gambling? 

Loot boxes in video games allow players to pay, often with real money, for a chance to win a virtual item. It’s currently not classed as gambling in the UK. Some people think these features should count as gambling because the player is risking something of value (either real money or in-game coins) in the hope of winning something else. What do you think? Even if you are not spending real money, do you think this could encourage risk-taking and gambling-style behaviour? How could this be potentially harmful to young people later in life? How can we make sure we have healthy attitudes and habits towards this? 

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

  • To make it easier, you could give some clues to help people decide on the topics or chat through each one as a group.
  • To make it harder, you could give people less information about the activity or create your own harder cards to use. 
  • This activity may mention topics, such as gambling, that impact or upset young people, due to different life experiences. Make sure you look out for these individuals and provide a safe and calm space for them to process their emotions. Always follow the Yellow Card. 
  • Check before and during the activity that everyone is comfortable, and make sure everyone knows that they can leave the activity at any point. It might be useful to agree a signal people can use, such as raising their hand, to stop take a break for the activity or if they need to speak to an adult. 
  • During this activity, young people may make a disclosure about or say something else that could be a safeguarding risk. In line with the Scout’s safeguarding procedures, if you're concerned that a young person is at risk of harm from themselves (or others) you'll need to pass this information on. Inform the young person, where possible, that you're required to pass any concerns on.  Always follow the Yellow Card.
  • If needed, let people be in bigger group sizes to make sure everyone’s supported in taking part in the activity.
  • If anyone has problems with mobility, they could partner up with someone who can do the movement while they help make the decisions. For anyone who may not be able to move around your meeting place easily, think about creating response cards for everyone. People can hold the response cards up to show their choice, instead of moving to different parts of your meeting place. 

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

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