Keep It Real Online: The story behind NZ's viral internet safety campaign

Pornstars 'Derek' and 'Sue' are played by Paris Theodosiou, left, and Cassandra Woodhouse. Photo / Keep It Real Online

A Kiwi internet safety campaign that went viral this month isn't your typical PSA about staying safe on the web - it features two actors playing fake porn stars, who turn up to an unsuspecting teenage boy's house.

The Keep It Real Online campaign by the Department of Internal Affairs gained international attention when the pornography episode went viral, racking up over 2.3 million views in two weeks and being covered by international media outlets including The Guardian and the BBC.

The 'porn stars', 'Sue' and 'Derek', are played by actors Cassandra Woodhouse and Paris Theodosiou - and no, to make things clear, they're not real porn stars. Woodhouse, 37, is a Kiwi actress, and the buff Theodosiou, 27, is a personal trainer and athlete.

Woodhouse told the Herald on Sunday she was "blown away" by how many people the video had reached.

"It was passed on by my agents," she says. "Initially I thought 'oh is this something I sort of want to do?'"

It was a different role for the model and actress, who starred on the show Filthy Rich. But she was swayed by the purpose of the campaign.

"I was really quite passionate about the messaging behind it. So that persuaded me to get on board with it."

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Congratulations on going viral team! So happy to see the humour & messaging resonating with so many kiwis as well as the rest of the world! Let’s continue to raise the consciousness and conversation around things that have for long been shamed and avoided and create an open dialogue for kids to feel supported and cared for. 🙏🏼Thank you for the love! . . . . . . . . . . . . #goneviral #congratulations #consciousness #consciousparenting #positiveparenting #parenting #talktoyourkids #newzeland #comedy #momlife #dadlife #pornography #porn #bethechange #actors #actorslife #greatad #tvc #behindthescenes

A post shared by Cassandra Woodhouse (@cassandra_woodhouse) on Jun 11, 2020 at 4:54pm PDT

The ad features mother Sandra (comedian Justine Smith) answering the door to find Sue and Derek at the door, informing her that her teenage son has been watching pornography. When he appears behind her, the boy drops his cereal as the pornstars inform Sandra he may not understand how consent or real relationships work. The clip ends with Sandra turning to her son to talk.

The auditions happened over Zoom for the project, and Woodhouse enlisted her 10-year-old daughter to help her read the lines.

"It didn't faze her at all because we had those conversations when I talked to her about it.

"I'm really passionate about conscious parenting, and having conversations with your kids even from an early age [about internet safety]."

"It's gone viral I believe because not only is it educating kids, but there's a lot of adults who are kind of realising 'oh my God, is that not how we learn?' [about sex]."

Theodosiou has been approached for comment about his role as Derek, but said on Instagram: "It was really cool to be able to work on this campaign that has a great message!"

Woodhouse says she believes it was his first-ever acting role. "He was a lot of fun!"

The Department of Internal Affairs Manager for Design, Engagement and Innovation for Digital Safety Trina Lowry says they made a deliberate choice to go with a humorous angle for this campaign.

"We could have gone down a scary route and thought about it in that way, but we know that's not necessarily successful in changing behaviour," she says.

"When we were working with [production agency] Motion Sickness, that was one of our goals to make the whole campaign go as viral as possible around New Zealand.

"That was one of our key aims, to try and make it a little bit different, a little bit out of the box so that people would pick it up."

Other episodes in the campaign cover online grooming, bullying and parental controls.

Pornstars 'Derek' and 'Sue' are played by Paris Theodosiou, left, and Cassandra Woodhouse. Photo / Keep It Real Online

The agency that came up with the campaign credits the Kiwi humour for the video's success.

"When we launched it, we thought it was reasonably bold," admits Sam Stuchbury, the director of Motion Sickness.

"We thought it would probably start a bit of conversation, but we didn't expect it to go as far as it did globally."

He says the campaign has gained traction in "random" places like Poland, Greece, and China.

"I think it's the humour that definitely hooked people in, but also just the subject matter is so topical at the moment and people really want to have a conversation about it."

The ad comes six months after the release of the NZ Youth and Porn report revealed a quarter of Kiwi teens had watched porn before the age of 12 - and most want restrictions on what can be accessed.

The Office of Film and Literature Classification's report said that some young people aged between 14 and 17 already feel reliant on pornography, despite often feeling troubled by what they saw.

• Keep It Real Online is a hub of information for parents wanting to know how best to educate their kids about using the internet safely. Videos and resources are available on keepitrealonline.govt.nz