Starting Point

The Empathy Package is a free digital service designed for children, parents and teachers. It offers up-to-date information and creative tools, and acts as a hub for the latest reliable information on the topic. It is a place for learning digital empathy, and through that tackle the problem of cyberbullying. We chose a digital service in order to reach the target groups in the right context, to reach as many people as possible, and to ensure the accuracy and longevity of the contents.

The empatiapakkaus.fi service was published in two phases. In the first phase, all Finns were invited to propose ideas for the contents for the package. There was an open idea challenge. Additional content insight was sourced through a school pilot with elementary school pupils at Latokartano School in Helsinki.

Based on this insight, the Empathy Package value coalition was expanded to include leading Finnish eSports teams ENCE and Havu, and several leading educational experts including Otava Learning, Minecraft Education Edition, Mightifier and Digiseikkailu.

In November 2019, the full version of the Empathy Package was launched with versatile educational content modules for learning, for example, interaction, technological and social media skills and behavior. We also developed a Class Bot, a chatbot based discussion tool to learn more empathic ways of communicating in classrooms. Minecraft Education Edition Challenge combined gaming with imagination and launched a challenge to build a more empathic world.

The Empathy Package has its own brand identity and the service is fully modular and easily scalable globally or for new user groups. The modular UX enables easy content updates, which is critical in the ever-evolving context of cyberbullying. The service is currently available in Finnish, Swedish and English. The goal of the digital service is to be a toolbox for users, and at its best, to reduce the direct and indirect personal and societal costs caused by cyberbullying.

Data collected in different phases of the project was used in owned, earned and social media communications, such as in television and radio interviews, print and digital news articles and social media posts. Two influencers, Miklu Bäck and the official Santa Claus of Finland published videos on cyberbullying and the Empathy Package. Microsoft organized and internal One Week Hackathon to ideate new technological solutions to improve digital empathy skills. The Empathy Package was one of the main subjects in the GameXpo, a national gaming event, in the Arena for Digital Learning organized by the Finnish National Agency for Education, and Educa 2020, the largest educational event in Finland. No data collected during the project was used for commercial purposes. Five additional Class Bot pilots were organized in Finnish schools.