Google’s ‘Be Internet Awesome’ effort teaches kids how to stay safe online

By Brad Jones Published June 6, 2017

Be Internet Awesome.

It’s very normal today for children to access the internet at a young age, and Google wants to do its part to ensure that their first steps onto the web are safe and enjoyable. To that end, the company has launched Be Internet Awesome, a new program that aims to educate youngsters on how to make smart decisions online.

Be Internet Awesome is designed with all kinds of different learning scenarios in mind. There are resources that teachers and educators can use in class, videos for parents to watch alongside their children, and fun interactive experiences that kids can enjoy by themselves.

Recommended Videos

It’s all about digital safety and citizenship, according to a post on the the company’s blog. Google is trying to teach children how to protect their information and determine whether something they read on the web is real or fake, but there’s also an ambition to educate the younger generation on how to be kind to one another online.

The interactive component will likely be the most engrossing aspect of Be Internet Awesome from a child’s perspective. The web-based Interland comprises four minigames, each of which takes aim at a different dimension of online activity.

Reality River tasks players with answering multiple choice questions, with a focus on who can be trusted online. Kind Kingdom is about blocking out cyberbullies and promoting more positive online interactions. Mindful Mountain focuses on the importance of only sharing information with the right people. Finally, Tower of Treasures aims to instill the importance of strong passwords.

It’s good to see Google being proactive with this sign of content, as it could certainly help make the web a better place for future generations. Releasing it for free is certainly a positive move, and hopefully parents and teachers alike will take advantage of the materials.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content --- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.