We saw an opportunity to work in partnership with parents, teachers, and kids themselves to start a dialogue about staying safe online and making the most of the Internet. The result was “Be Internet Awesome,” a multifaceted program from Google that aims to help kids be safer, more confident explorers online. Covering topics ranging from phishing and scams, to how to confront cyberbullying, the program speaks to kids in a direct and empowering way, encouraging them to take their digital wellbeing into their own hands. A key part of our solution is empowering kids to learn firsthand, but we also needed to do it in a way that felt like fun, not homework. To pull this off, we built these lessons on digital citizenship into a challenging video game called “Interland.” Through this medium, kids stay engaged, internalizing key lessons in a format that’s approachable and digestible.

We tailored the execution for each target audience.

For educators, we created a robust curriculum for the classroom with five lessons and dozens of activities. The lessons included: Share with Care; Don’t Fall for Fake; Secure Your Secrets; It’s Cool to Be Kind; and when When in Doubt, Talk It Out. The curriculum is also brought to life through a traveling school assembly roadshow (40+ locations across the US) to help bring the topics to the classroom. And we launched a social campaign to build awareness and be part of the online conversation already taking place among educators and parents. For educators we spent several months actively engaged in the conversation responding to questions and sharing resources.

For parents, we helped jump start conversations with their kids by partnering with 3 YouTube creators to launch the “Be Internet Awesome Challenge,” a call-to-action from influencers to encourage families to leave YouTube comments that expressed kindness and empathy. We created a family pledge to outline best practices for digital citizenship that helped empower kids with the support of their parents.

Most importantly, for kids, we built our key lessons and content into a format they already know and love: a video game. “Interland” teaches kids digital safety lessons with four “lands” (levels) that reinforce the lessons in the curriculum. Players can explore Kind Kingdom, a place that teaches how to avoid, report, and block cyberbullies, restoring kindness and respect to their online interactions. They can cross Reality River, a water level laden with questions about spotting phishing and scams. They can climb Mindful Mountain, a place that encourages smart and responsible social sharing. Lastly, they can race towards the Tower of Treasure, which teaches how to create and remember strong passwords.