Kids like games. So why not use electronic games to teach internet safety principles? Read more here to see a middle schooler’s review of games for first through fifth graders.
Tad’s Profile Panic
Any age that likes mazes
Internet Safety- 2/5
General Game- 2/5
Tad’s Profile Panic is a repetitive game on navigating mazes. Not highly recommended if your goal is to teach your child about profile safety. I got to level 3, kept going to level 5, then finally stopped because I got bored of the same thing over and over. There is no menu screen to show you how many levels are left, let you move to another level, etc. The only thing that has any relative connection to internet safety is a tip that you will get if you click the pause button in the top left corner. There is also another character walking around the maze, if the character hits you, you have to restart the level. My guess is that it is supposed to be a stranger but it is not very obvious.
Rescue Run
Grades 1-5
Internet Safety- 3/5
General Game- 4/5
Rescue Run makes their tips very obvious. At the beginning of your run (run is similar to the game minion rush) it says that one of the players’ friends is going to meet up with an online friend. You then start running after them. If you die in the level, it says that the online friend had to do something else so they never actually met up. Then it says to tell your friend to refuse to meet offline further in the future. If you catch up to your friend, then the same message you get at the beginning pops up and you go chase another one of your friends. It is a fun game, but you get the same tip over and over again so once you learn the tip, there is not much more internet safety information that the game can offer you.
Password Plunder
Grades 1-5
Internet Safety-5/5
General Game-5/5
Very good password safety app. Password Plunder allows you to build strong passwords in an angry bird sort of format. There is a tip about building strong passwords in between each level. You aim your lasso at a letter, number, etc., then you let go and the lasso shoots forward. Once it grabs a letter, number, etc., it pulls it back to your password. After every letter or two, your walls become higher. The goal is to build a strong password and make your walls high enough so that the other characters can’t climb over your walls the amount of time that they give you. I stopped at level 3 but would keep going. There are 40 levels.
Cyberbully Zombies Attack
Grades 1-5
Internet Safety- 2/5
General Game- 5/5
Fun game. Very similar to the game Plants vs. Zombies. If the cyberbully zombies get to the character shooting it, it starts eating it. If the cyberbully zombies make it through the door, a little message pops up saying something along the lines of the zombies are eating your brains and IMing about your crush. As you beat levels, you get more defense options.