Kids learn online smarts through new game

Hedy Fry calls CyberSense and Nonsense a "creative approach" to combating online hate

Ottawa, Ontario, April 6, 2000 - The Media Awareness Network (MNet) launched CyberSense and Nonsense today, a new interactive computer game to help "cyberproof" kids.

CyberSense and Nonsense is designed to help children between the ages of nine and eleven learn how to:

• detect bias and recognize propaganda on Web sites
• question the truth and accuracy of online information, and
• protect themselves in places like Internet chat rooms.

Children can follow the three CyberPigs, Les, Mo and Lil, as they explore cyberspace, meet other kids in an online chat environment, and learn some valuable lessons along the way.

"As our children go online, it's important that they develop the critical thinking skills needed for wise surfing. Kids need to know how to evaluate whatever and whomever they encounter on the Net," said Hedy Fry, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism at today's presentation of the game at Riverview Alternative School. "With the increasing spread of hate on the Internet, the need for media literacy skills is that much more important. CyberSense and Nonsense is a creative approach to developing those skills."

CyberSense and Nonsense was produced by the Media Awareness Network with financial support from the Multiculturalism Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

"The critical thinking skills needed to understand all the media that are informing, entertaining and selling to young people everyday have become essential in today's world. Children need to learn how to make wise, safe and responsible decisions about the information they come into contact with," says Jan D'Arcy, Co-Director of the Media Awareness Network. "The Media Awareness Network helps parents and teachers give their kids the cybersmarts they need."

The game is accompanied by a learning guide for parents and teachers. It provides a review of the game, gives background information on the issues of cyber-hate and "netiquette," and includes game-related activities, student handouts, and links to related resources.

CyberSense and Nonsense comes as a follow-up to the Media Awareness Network's first educational game, Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three Little CyberPigs. Aimed at children between the ages of seven and ten, Privacy Playground helps kids learn to critically evaluate commercial Internet sites, as well as how to recognize invasive and deceptive online advertising techniques that could put their personal privacy at risk.

CyberSense and Nonsense, and its French-language counterpart Qui dit vrai?, can be downloaded or purchased on CD-ROM from the Media Awareness Network Web site at: /en/game/cybersense-and-nonsense-second-adventure-three-cyberpigs.

The Media Awareness Network is Canada's leading national media education organization and an international leader in Web literacy initiatives. Last year, the Media Awareness Network launched Web Awareness: Knowing the Issues, a program designed to raise awareness of the issues facing children and young people as they go online. The Web Awareness program is now being rolled out across the country.

For more information, contact:

Jan D'Arcy
Co-Director
Media Awareness Network
Tel: (613) 224-6892
Fax: (613) 224-1958

Daphne Guerrero
Media Relations
Tel: (613) 224-7120

Thoren Hudyma
Office of the Secretary of
Multiculturalism and the Status of Women
(819) 997-9900