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We talk a lot about screen time. How much is too much, what counts as quality, when to put the device down.
But there's a question that matters just as much, and gets asked far less: when your child is online, do they know what to do if something goes wrong?
Not in theory. Not because you've told them the rules. But because they've actually practised it, in a context they care about, with characters they trust, in a moment that felt real.
That's what Tomato Imposter: Pausing Screen Time is built to do. And today, it's live in Nurture.
Meet the adventure
The Delivery Crew has a new business: Tomato Imposter, a tomato delivery service. But on their very first run, things go sideways fast. Squoosh uses zero-gravity flour for breakfast waffles, and suddenly the airship is full of floating food, very confused tomatoes, and a crew with no idea what to do next.
Boing knows the answer: call someone who does.
She opens her family chat, a short list of trusted adults she can always reach, and the crew starts calling for help. What follows across three chapters is a story about getting help the right way, recognising when something (or someone) online isn't what it seems, and knowing exactly what to do when things get strange.
Strange, in this case, meaning a tomato-shaped stranger who appears in the family chat and immediately starts asking for personal information.
Boing hangs up.
Three skills your child builds
Tomato Imposter is part of Nurture's 400-series, focused on digital wellbeing — the practical skills that help children navigate online spaces safely and confidently. Three specific skills sit at the heart of this adventure.
Know who to call. The family chat isn't just a story mechanic. It's a model for something real: a short, specific list of grown-ups a child can reach when something goes wrong online. Your child helps Boing build and use hers, making the concept concrete in a way a conversation alone rarely does.
Spot the stranger in disguise. Online, strangers can look like friends. This is a hard concept to explain to a 5-year-old in the abstract. It's much easier when they've just watched a friendly-looking character reveal itself as something else entirely, and helped a character they love make the right call.
Keep private things private. Name, address, school, phone number, photos. Tomatoes Imposter gives children a clear reason to protect this information, not as a rule to follow, but as something that genuinely matters to characters they care about.
Why story is the right vehicle
"When kids practise safety skills through characters they trust, the learning becomes joyful, not forced," says Dr. Rachel Kowert, PhD, Nurture's Digital Parenting Expert and award-winning research psychologist.
The research backs this up. Emotional engagement, the feeling of being inside a story, significantly improves how children retain and apply what they learn. A rule told to a 5-year-old disappears. An experience they've lived through, even in play, sticks.
Tomatoes Imposter is designed around this. The strange tomato scene isn't an illustration of a safety lesson. It's the lesson, rendered in a form a 5-year-old can feel.
Every chapter is 10 to 15 minutes. Every interaction builds the skill. Kids think they're playing. They're actually practising.
Knowing who a trusted adult is matters most when a child actually needs one. Nurture's Tomatoes Imposter adventure gives children ages 4–7 the experience of building a family chat list and calling for help through a story they'll want to play again.
Play it together for twice the impact
This adventure works well for solo play, but two moments are worth experiencing with your child.
The family chat scene. Pause here and ask: "Who would be in your family chat? Who would you call if something happened online and I wasn't around?" The adventure gives you the natural entry point for a conversation that research consistently recommends having before anything goes wrong.
The strange tomato. After your child plays this chapter, ask: "Why did Boing hang up? What made the strange tomato feel different?" A 6-year-old who can answer that question has genuinely internalised something important.
For a step-by-step co-play guide including conversation starters for each chapter, [download the free guide here].
A note on timing
Digital safety conversations are often reactive, prompted by a news story, an incident, a moment of concern. Tomatoes Imposter is designed to be proactive. To give children the skills, the vocabulary, and the practised response before they need it.
The best time to have this conversation with your child is before anything goes wrong. The best way to make it stick is through play.
Tomatoes Imposter is available now in The Nurture App, free to start. No ads, no in-app purchases.
Already have Nurture? Find Tomatoes Imposter in your adventure library.