Lens on Google child mission
Safety program fuels debate
Google is on
a mission to teach children how to be safe online. That is the message behind
“Be Internet Awesome,” a so-called digital-citizenship education program that
the technology giant developed for schools.
The lessons
include a cartoon game branded with Google’s logo and blue, red, yellow and
green colour palette. The game is meant to help students from third grade
through sixth grade against schemers, hackers and other bad actors.
Google plans
to reach five million schoolchildren with the program this year and has teamed
up with the National Parent Teacher Association of the US to offer related
workshops to parents.
But critics
say the company’s recent woes — including revelations that it was developing a
censored version of its search engine for the Chinese market and had tracked
the whereabouts of users who had explicitly turned off their location history —
should disqualify Google from promoting itself in schools as a model of proper
digital conduct.
Among other
things, these critics argue, the company’s lessons give children the mistaken
impression that the main threat they face online is from malicious hackers and
bullies, glossing over the privacy concerns that arise when tech giants like
Google itself collect users’ personal information and track their actions
online.
As an
analysis of Google’s curriculum published in Emerging Library & Information
Perspectives, a graduate student journal at Western University in Ontario, put
it, “‘Be Internet Awesome’ generally presents Google as impartial and trustworthy,
which is especially problematic given that the target audience is
impressionable youth.”
In a
statement, Julianne Yi, who leads the Google program, said it had “proven
useful to kids, teachers, and families around the world,” and was supported by,
among others, the National PTA, the International Society for Technology in
Education and the Family Online Safety Institute.
Of those
groups, Google is a national sponsor of the National PTA, a financial supporter
of the Family Online Safety Institute and a year-round mission sponsor of the
International Society for Technology in Education, which promotes the use of
technology in public schools.
Jim
Accomando, the president of the National PTA, said that the organisation “does
not endorse any commercial product or service,” although companies that give
money to the group may receive “promotional consideration”.
“Google is a
great example of a partner that aligns with our goals, and they have deep tech
knowledge that they bring to the table,” he said.
The cartoon
game, Interland, offers an animated world “presented by Google.” In it,
children navigate spammers and hackers in “Reality River” and consider who in
their social network can see what they post online on “Mindful Mountain”.
The game,
which comes with a lesson plan and classroom activities, is meant to teach
children “the fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety so they can
explore the online world with confidence,” according to Google’s site
description. Once students learn skills like how to create strong passwords and
not share information with strangers, the program encourages them to be
“fearless” online explorers.
Kerry
Gallagher, an assistant principal at St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers,
Massachusetts, said Google’s program helped students learn concrete ways to be
safer and kinder online.
To some
observers, the game is essentially a big ad for Google.
David
Monahan, campaign manager at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a
non-profit advocacy group, likened the program to asking Budweiser to talk to
parents and children about underage drinking.
Source | The
Telegraph | 26th October 2018
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library &
Information Science (NET Qualified)
Research Scholar (IGNOU)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
Mobile @ 9665911593
