Google Interland is a new initiative from Google to make kids understand how to use the internet safely and make them aware of the potential internet threats. The idea is well implemented in form of different games which guides and teaches kids about internet security like strong passwords, information sharing i.e. with whom they should share personal info online, phishing attacks, and how to differentiate between a scam or untrusted website with an authentic and secure one, etc.
Kids can explore 4 different kingdoms and become internet awesome by playing these simple games. Read the complete review to know about these different kingdoms where your kid can learn how to surf the internet safely.
Check out this cool video for Google Interland:
How to use Google Interland and how it help kids to learn how to use the internet safely:
Google Interland is a virtual world where Internauts live in 4 different Kingdoms i.e. Tower of Treasure, Kind Kingdom, Mindful Mountain, and Reality River. All these kingdoms convey different messages and how they can use the internet more smartly. Some examples are:
- Not to click on any suspicious pop-up.
- Not to download email attachment from any unrecognized person.
- Selectively choose to share information with others online.
- How to make a difference between trusted and fraud or spammy websites.
- Use strong passwords for online accounts.
- Protect themselves and others from cyberbullies and to report and block them.
Let’s now see different Interland Kingdoms and how your kid can interact with them:
Tower Of Treasure:
In Tower of Treasure Kingdom of Google Interland, your kid will play as the Internaut and will build a strong password to secure the treasure tower from hackers. The main motive of this kingdom is to make kids understand that how they can make their online accounts more secure by using a strong password of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special symbols. The kids have to control the Internaut across the kingdom land and collect letters to form a strong passphrase to lock the treasure tower door. Use the arrow keys to guide the Internaut and to prevent him from hitting rocks and other obstacles. A wicked hacker also tries to chase you down and will catch you if you make the Internaut fall. If you are killed, don’t worry as there are an unlimited number of chances to complete the game. In the first mission, you have to collect all the lowercase letters and then followed by all the uppercase letters and numbers. Once you complete a mission, a phrase is formed from the collected letters or numbers. In the end, all the passphrases from all the missions are combined to form an ultimate password to lock Treasure Tower.
Kind Kingdom:
Kind Kingdom of Interland teaches kids to be kind and how to tackle cyberbullies online. The main motive is to ask kids to report and block anything suspicious in the online world. As usual, you will play as Internaut who is the messenger of kindness in this Kingdom and will spread love and positive vibes to other internauts. The only challenge is to outsmart the cyberbullies in the game as they will try to take over and spread negativity to others. You need to go at the top of the Kind Kingdom to win this game. You can use the arrow keys to move the Internaut to move around and collect the hearts and use the spacebar key to send good vibes to other internauts. In order to outsmart cyberbullies, you can block them using a button at a level which prevents other internauts from their influence. After you reach the top of the kingdom, you win this game and can explore another exciting kingdom described below.
Reality River:
The Reality River Kingdom of Interland makes your kids familiar with internet security attacks and how to trust different sites on the internet. It is basically a quiz in which your kid is asked different questions related to internet security like what are trust signals of sites, how will react when you receive an email attachment from a cousin who is not in touch from months, and so on. The game progresses as you the internet and your motive is to cross the Reality River which flows in the middle of this Kingdom. For each correct answer, you take a step ahead and if you get it wrong then you will fall in the river. However, there are unlimited chances to finish the game and to learn from your mistakes i.e. learn correct answers. You will be asked 10 questions and you have to answer all of them to make it to the other side of the river.
Mindful Mountain:
The Mindful Mountain Kingdom of Interland makes your kid understand which information can be shared with others and to hide sensitive information from others in the online world. The gameplay of this kingdom is a bit tricky and can require assistance from you to continue. Your kid will be shown a piece of information and with whom he should share that info, as you can see in the screenshot below. After that, your kid has to move the fire gun stand and fire it on the right person on the map to share the information.
The twists in the game are that there are hackers on the map as well and you need to make sure that information doesn’t pass through them.To make things more challenging, there are mirrors on the map which reflect your information to different directions based on their position and rotation angle which can transfer the information to be shared to the hackers. So, you need to figure out a way on the map to transfer information to only to the intended users. In case you choose a different way and the info is passed, then a message is shown in which its potential danger is mentioned. You can then start again and choose to transfer the info from a secure channel by firing the laser. Use the arrow keys to adjust the fire gun stand and hit the Enter key to fire. This activity will help your kids to understand how important is to hide sensitive info from others.
Verdict:
Google Interland is a very cool platform which your kids can explore and understand how to surf the internet safely, protect themselves from cyberbullies, and phishing attacks. I will totally recommend you give to your kids a tour to Interland as they can learn about this technical stuff in a very interactive manner i.e. playing games, they can learn and play at the same time.
