A free pop-up play café is being launched in Hatfield by the University of Hertfordshire.

The 'Switch Off, Play On!' play café will be open from October 29 to November 2 in The Galleria, with the aim of teaching families about healthy digital use.

With more than 100 board games, puzzles and toys to enjoy, the café will help families to learn about healthy digital behaviour.

This initiative is linked to Herts-led research on the 'problematic use of the internet' and its effects on mental health and wellbeing.

The play café will be a welcoming, educational space where families and friends are encouraged to switch off their devices and enjoy traditional games.

The café will be open from 11am to 4pm every day, except on October 30 when it will open at 1pm.

A special SEN session will be held from 10am to 12pm on October 30, in collaboration with charity Potential Kids.

Professor Wendy Wills, pro-vice chancellor for research and enterprise at the University of Hertfordshire, said: "We're really excited to welcome families to our Switch Off, Play On! play café this October half term as part of Herts' activity for the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2024.

"As well as being a fun, family experience, we're hoping it will help to raise awareness of PUI and the interventions identified by Herts-led research, while promoting ways for us all to develop healthier behaviour around how we use and interact with digital technology."

Consultant psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at the University of Hertfordshire, Naomi Fineberg, said: "Since its development in the early 1990s, the internet has become highly pervasive across most of the civilised world.

"While the majority of internet users take advantage of its many positive uses, some individuals can develop problematic use of the internet (PUI), that is, repetitive disabling behaviours characterised by compulsivity and addiction, including but not limited to internet gaming, internet-related buying or shopping disorder, internet-related gambling disorder and obsessive social media/network forum use.

"Lots of these will be shared within the Switch Off, Play On! play café, which aims to further raise awareness of PUI and the interventions we have identified, while promoting ways for us all to develop healthier behaviour around how we use and interact with digital technology."