Using technology to fight technology abuses, students at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School have been playing an interactive computer game to learn about online child predators — and how to avoid them.
Called MISSING, the game has students follow a boy named Zack who is lured by an online predator into leaving his home. Working through the program solo at their own pace, the sixth, seventh and eight grade students at the school try to rescue him. The program is put out by the nonprofit Web Wise Kids and is based on a real-life story of a Canadian teen's experiences.
Playing the game demonstrates to students why they must keep personal information off the web and ways to maintain their online privacy. In this era of MySpace and other personal Web sites as well as online surfing and instant messaging, this information is key for this age group.
"Research shows that one in five children are solicited online and Dateline NBC estimates that at any one time there's 50,000 predators on line prowling for kids,” said Cindy Hodges, technical director of the Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools who researched programs available before choosing MISSING. "While they're in our school, we can keep them safe with the technology that we have in place and content filters.”
Like many of her peers, Madison Archer, an eighth grader student at the school, has a MySpace page. After completing MISSING, she removed personal information from it, including her name, age, birthdate and hobbies. She realized that even having a Private setting would not protect her.
"I deleted most of it,” she said. "[The game] gave you a heads up that it can happen anytime, it's scary to think about being kidnapped.”
Archer is open with her parents and always tells her mom where she has gone online and for what purpose. Typical of her plugged-in generation, Archer was an avid user of the computer to connect with friends, overuse that triggered her parents to ban it for a while. That hiatus broke the spell and she now goes online only once a week or so.
"I was really, really addicted to it,” she recalled.
Natalie Beia, a sixth grader at the school, does not yet have a MySpace page and, before using MISSING, did not think an encounter with a predator could happen to her. She worries about her older brother, who has a photo on his MySpace page that she has not yet convinced him to remove.
"I learned a lot more, the program was fun and it was educational doing it,” she said.
Janet Troppman, principal of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School, said she was not at first sure MISSING was appropriate for sixth grade students. However, previewing the program, researching the issue and the realization that technological sophistication was starting at younger ages prompted the school to present the program to all three grades.
Younger students may even be ready for the messages about safety that MISSING provides.
"Think about it, people have their three year old on the computer, clicking on the mouse and going to Disney.com,” said Troppman. "It's going to move down to younger and younger ages.”
The hands-on format of an interactive computer game, a medium students are familiar, is having greater impact than a lecture about potential dangers online.
"We are getting great feedback,” she added. "We have a lesson plan and a CD available for parents.”