SafeLand is a platform to teach kids the basic concepts of cybersecurity. Considering the new technological trends, we decided to develop an ipad application to use it at schools to learn in a fun way. SafeLand will have lessons, videos and fun minigames to reinforce the knowledge of young students. This project was made in collaboration with Maria Serralha and Yerai Zamorano.
Security in the connected world is important for all of us. Security threats are everywhere, and we all are targets. It is easy to fall for scams and make bad security decisions (ending up on bad websites, installing malicious applications, leaking sensitive personal information, etc ).
Kids are particularly challenging as a target group, requiring exemplary usability and engagement. Therefore, what works with kids, works with all of us. The purpose of this challenge is to strengthen the users’ resilience against these threats through improved awareness.
Because of the increasing popularity of iPads and internet-connected devices at schools, we thought about designing a platform to help kids learn about the dangers of the internet. SafeLand was designed to be used during class, with the assistant of teachers. However, parents could also use the application with their kids at home. The platform consists of a series of lectures that are organized in categories.
In every lecture, the kid is introduced to an internet topic that is explained using an easy to understand language. Because of this, we believe parents could also benefit and learn using the app, especially those with moderate IT knowledge. At the end of every lecture, the kid is presented with different mini-games related to the topic to help him retain the information learned.
