App promotes savvy Web use among kids
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A new tool for keeping young teens and pre-teens safe while using social media has been launched using simulated situations the youths might face in their daily school lives.
Called BeSeen, the free mobile application was developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Information Networking Institute (INI) and the national nonprofit Web Wise Kids. The app becomes available today for Apple devices and will be available on Android-powered systems in December.
INI Director Dena Tsamitis said the idea came after she happened to be sitting at the same lunch table with Judi Warren, president of Web Wise Kids, at a Washington, D.C., conference in June.
Given Web Wise Kids' mission, and INI's existing cyber safety programs, "we said, 'Why not put our heads together and see what we can do?" said Ms. Tsamitis, who holds a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.
BeSeen was developed over this summer, with CMU employing illustrators, multi-media specialists, instructional designers, technical writers and game designers working on software with the typical 11- to 14-year-old in mind.
What they came up with is a video game version of social networking in which the user faces and responds to different situations that address issues from bullying to keeping their personal information secure.
The player starts by creating a profile, just as he would for a social networking site such as Facebook; then he goes through a condensed version of a school year.
The only requirements for a player to use BeSeen is that he or she must be able to read and operate a computer without help -- a standard that has become something of a moving target, Ms. Tsamitis said.
Five years ago, students in middle to upper elementary grades would fit those criteria, she said. Today, there are kindergartners and first graders using computers by themselves. "Young children have become much more computer savvy."
First Published October 12, 2011 12:00 am
