Most children would just as soon play a computer game than listen to a lecture about the dangers of cyberspace -- and that's just fine with computer security experts at Carnegie Mellon University.

CMU's CyLab and its Information Networking Initiative will unveil tonight a new interactive game, called MySecureCyberspace, designed to teach kids how to keep themselves safe from cybercreeps and to protect their computers against Internet viruses.

The game, which adjusts its sophistication level based on the age of the player, features superheroes in the "Cyber Defense Academy," cartoon characters similar to those of the Disney Channel's Kim Possible and of the 1960s "futuristic" classic, "The Jetsons."

Pradeep Khosla, CyLab co-founder and CMU's dean of engineering, said the MySecureCyberspace game, as well as an accompanying Web portal, will be distributed to 20,000 Pittsburgh families through the Pittsburgh Public Schools' Emerging Links project, which makes computers and Internet links available to low-income families. And, within a few weeks, the game should be available for download from a CMU Web site.

"We want to have every household have one member who is aware of cybersecurity," Khosla said of the project.

The CyLab also has partnered with a national, nonprofit group, i-SAFE, which will package the game with educational materials it supplies to schools in all 50 states and around the world.

"This is a very large initiative," said Teri Schroeder, CEO and founder of the Internet safety group. i-SAFE also is working with Microsoft Corp., which will soon make the MySecureCyberspace game available for download from its www.msn.staysafeonline.com Web site.

Kevin Storr, an i-SAFE spokesman, said the game is something that would not be possible without CMU. "As a small, nonprofit group, we don't have the capability to put it together ourselves," he said.

The MySecureCyberspace initiative is being launched tonight at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland as part of a celebration marking the 15th anniversary of the Information Networking Institute.

Khosla said international versions of the game also are being rolled out by the CyLab's counterparts in South Korea, Japan and Greece.

I-SAFE's Schroeder said teaching children not only how to stay safe on line but also to use the Internet responsibly is essential for this generation of children and young adults, who are among the heaviest users of the Internet.

"That is their world," she added, noting the Internet is shaping the lives of children in much the same way that television shaped their parents. "They are cybercitizens and they will be for the rest of their lives."

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