Cyber Awareness Game for Children

With the emergence of cyberspace in the past couple decades, we have found ourselves depending on the internet for almost everything. Whether it’s just browsing, streaming videos and movies, gaming, or even making purchases, the cyberspace is utilized pretty much every day by the average person, including children.

Over the past few years, almost everything you can think of has been taken over by technology. With the recent pandemic, a lot of business locations had to close. This included schools, which meant education was affected severely. Numerous schools and universities across the country were shut down, so how were students meant to continue their education? Distance learning, and even working from home became widely used across the nation by people of all ages during this time.

As children are starting to use technology at early stages in their life, it also makes them easy targets for malicious attacks and cybercrimes. They are still developing much of their understanding and knowledge of everyday life, so that makes them a vulnerable demographic. Young children are easily influenced by what they see and hear whether it’s something that was said by their parents, something off a tv show they watch, or even a game that they play. They are not cautious about the things that people who are older tend to be cautious about as they are only children. They do not have the same wariness that an adult would have, and their overly curious minds make them the easiest target for cyber threats. Just as a parent would tell their child, “Do Not Talk to Strangers”, it’s important to let them know early that they should also not open messages or links from strangers as well. That is why parents should always keep an eye on what their children are looking at on the internet and implement parental controls on devices if they have not.

Unfortunately, not only does cybersecurity awareness need to be improved for children, but for most teenagers and adults as well. Relying on technology has become the norm for nearly every aspect in life these days. Children and younger adults have been exposed to this new reality at an early age, so it has been easier for them to adapt to these changes. Adults who have lived throughout these changes on the other hand, are the ones having the difficulty adapting. This means that both teachers and parents of these children and young adults lack experience in this department so they cannot even assist the younger generation as much as they normally do.

The youth of this generation are online now more than ever, their tablets, computers, and smartphones can connect to the internet. Knowing how to traverse the internet safely is a vital skill that this group of people should always know and practice. One of the main and most common cyber tactics that attackers use is called phishing. Cyber criminals use phishing to “steal personal and financial information from their targets.” (getcybersafe.gc.ca). No one really becomes a victim of phishing on purpose, as the idea of it is to trick a person into clicking on malicious links or embedded images. Those links or images then could download malware onto their computer system or device or maybe even direct them to a suspicious site. Phishing is most likely to be conducted over email, however it can also be done through text messages, messages on social media, or even over the phone. It is extremely easy for children to fall victim to these scams, regardless of whether or not they have their own email accounts or phones. Similar phishing attacks can happen except in game. Attackers can target these children “pretending to be other players in video games and friends on messaging apps.” For example, messages could consist of fake offers of prizes in exchange for personal information of the children or parents, or even malicious links that lead to the downloading of malware that are disguised as free downloadable content (DLC) for the game that they are currently playing. Although today’s kids are tech-savvy in a way, that does not mean they know how to protect themselves from the scammers of the internet.

Children learn a lot these days through educational games. The invention of games for the sole purpose of education has benefited children greatly. It is extremely difficult for children to focus well on something that they are not interested in. So, keeping in mind how important it is to have cyber awareness, especially at such a young age, developing an informative game that will teach kids how to be as safe as they can be while using the internet is the main focus here.

Initially, the ideal game will be available on PC and mobile devices. Seeing as it is an educational game for children, it should be able to run on devices that are available at schools and for home use as well. These two formats would work well for kids today as they are pretty much always using some type of electronic device, it would be easy for them to work the game.

The ideal game will also have multiple levels for different age groups, so this game will be for kids and teenagers as well. The levels will start with easier, more understandable material for the younger aged kids, and the more in-depth material as the age increases. Some of the topics that will be included amongst the levels will start as simple as not to click on links from unknown sources, to how to tell what email a phishing email is and to not interact with them. Social media is also a big part of kids and teenagers’ lives, so having cyber awareness plays a big role in it as well. It is easy for children or even teenagers to unknowingly post private information without thinking much of it, so there will be a level(s) that will educate them on what is or is not safe to post.

Seeing as this game is being created for educational and informative purposes, it should be marketed towards administrators and teachers in schools. Like other educational gaming platforms, such as ABCmouse, Noggin, Adventure Academy, this game will be available with a subscription. With a month-to-month subscription, pricing starts at $10.99/month, a short-term plan is $25.99/every 6 months, and for an annual plan it is $52.99/year. Parental consent is also needed for the children to access this type of game at home, as there are laws put in place that “imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age…” (Ritchie). The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) implemented the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), which also regulates operators of both websites and other online services that have knowledge of them collecting personal information from a child under the age of 13.

Although this seems like a great idea all around, there are, however, quite a few barriers to overcome to see this project all the way through. First off, being able to find an efficient development studio to put this game together is most important, followed by the budget. It is imperative that there is a big enough budget to be able to afford to create this (most likely) very expensive game. It is in the best interest of the team to try and secure as many investors and donations as possible, then go from there, as this is not a cheap feat.

Being sure that the game gets the attention of the intended audience is a potential issue that must be considered. Labeling it as an educational game, might turn the kid’s attention away from it which is something else to watch out for. It’s possible that if it is made fun enough, while still focusing on the cyber awareness aspect of it, it will be a hit. Even though the game could be somewhat compared to other educational gaming platforms like ABCmouse, Noggin, and Adventure Academy, the focus of this game is to teach and encourage the younger generation, especially younger kids, how to be more aware while being on the internet.

There will have to be a demo or beta of the game to start off, hopefully, by having children play the demo it will be easy to gauge the interest of the public and see where they stand. Collecting feedback from that, as well as reviews about that game, will show the team what everyone thinks and how the game can be improved. Adding an optional survey at the end of each level, or on the menu of the game is also a way to gauge the reaction of the audience, how they feel about the game, and even tell the team whether the game worked as intended.

To summarize and reflect, most of what I learned from doing this project was from the research I did. It was not a shock to learn that the younger generation, and even the older generation, did not (and still do not) practice proper safety while browsing the internet. What did come as a shock to me was the fact that there is no proper training or education being taught whether in schools or in the workplace. You would think that since majority of children these days use some kind of electronic device at school to complete their assignments, they would be required to do some kind of training on proper cyber awareness before being able to use the devices. Looking back, I realized that maybe we could have mentioned the fact that this game could be that same training that I just mentioned up above. Meaning that, this game could be the proper cyber safety training that students, and even teachers, must go through to be able to use laptops or tablets in school. The subscription prices would most likely just be for schools, and if parents of the students wanted this game to use for in home practice, then they can purchase it for one set price. One last thing that I learned by doing this project is how much actually goes into the process of creating a product or idea. Even though we are not actually going through with making our game, just going through the process, step by step, was difficult enough. So now I can honestly say, I understand why most entrepreneurs fail multiple times before actually being successful.

Works Cited:

Establishment, C. S. (2021, November 3). Cyber Security for Kids: An introduction. Get Cyber Safe. https://www.getcybersafe.gc.ca/en/blogs/cyber-security-kids-introduction

National Cybersecurity Alliance. (2023, June 1). Talking to kids and teens about security and privacy. National Cybersecurity Alliance. https://staysafeonline.org/online-safety-privacy-basics/talking-to-kids-teens/

Phishing attacks: Defending your organisation. NCSC. (2018, February 8). https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/phishing#section_1

Ritchie, J. N. & A., & Technology, T. F. O. of. (2023, February 3). Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA”). Federal Trade Commission. https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-coppa

Sağlam, R. B., Miller, V., & Franqueira, V. N. (2023). A systematic literature review on Cyber Security Education for Children. IEEE Transactions on Education, 66(3), 274–286. https://doi.org/10.1109/te.2022.3231019

Vedova, H., & Technology, T. F. O. of. (2023, February 3). Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“coppa”). Federal Trade Commission. https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-coppa

Yuliana, Y. (2022). THE IMPORTANCE OF CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS FOR CHILDREN. Lampung Journal of International Law.