Recently five Utah school districts teamed up with the Entertainment Software Association to implement a pilot program that will use games to teach children Internet safety.

The program, called Web Wise Kids, is being put in place in select schools in the Granite, Salt Lake, Murray, Jordan and Alpine school districts as part of Utah's continuing effort to combat children falling victim to predators and fraud on the Internet.

"This program is important to the safety of students in using the Internet," said Gary Seastrand, assistant superintendent of Alpine School District where the program will be tested.

He went on to say that the program is "very instructive," and will "help children learn the dangers of inappropriate Internet use."

According to a 2006 survey conducted by the Crimes Against Children Research Center, as many as 77 million children nationwide have access to the Internet making children's online safety an increasingly important issue.

That same survey reports within one year, 1 in 25 youth received invitations to meet in person or make other offline contact, and 1 in 7 children received unwanted sexual solicitations.

"Our goal is to help youth avoid becoming victims of online predators," said Esther Cookson, director of strategic initiatives for Web Wise Kids.

The games, titled "Missing," "Mirror Image" and "Airdogs," let children interact in scenarios based on real life situations where they can learn the behavior of and how to avoid online predators.

"Real actors, with real story-lines from actual crimes creates a game that will rivet attention at the same time it educates its players in internet safety," said President John Valentine of the Utah Senate in a news release about the program. "Kids need to realize dangers that exist online. This interactive game will help."

Web Wise Kids has already been credited with saving one San Francisco teen, Katie Canton, from an online predator who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his attempts to entice her.

Although Web Wise Kids has almost 3,500 community partners nationwide, including church groups, schools and law enforcement agencies, the launch of the pilot in Utah schools marks the largest effort to date.

Implementation and training of the teachers involved in the Web Wise Kids pilot is being funded by the Electronic Software Association, which is made up of major gaming companies.

The program was launched at a news conference Wednesday morning at the state Capitol building, and is expected to be in use in the Alpine School District within the next few months.

Teens and Internet Safety

Nearly 1 in 10 teens (8 percent) has posted his or her cell phone number online (Teen Research Unlimited. "Cox Communications Teen Internet safety Survey Wave II," March 2007).

32 percent of all teens have been contacted online by a complete stranger (Lenhart, Amanda and Maddox, Mary. "Teens, Privacy, and Online Social Networks - How Teens Manage their Online Identities and Personal Information in the Age of MySpace." April 18, 2007).

23 percent of children have had an encounter with a stranger on the Internet, including 7 percent of children who reported having met someone in the real world from the Internet (Harris Interactive, "Kids Outsmart Parents When it Comes to the Internet," August

2007).

Copyright Brigham Young University 14 Jan 2008