Project Overview: A Safer Way To Surf The Net
1.
Welcome Young Fisherman!
A colorful internet-safety book that helps kids learn how to stay safe, think carefully, and make kind choices online.
Shark in the Net is an educational digital experience designed to help children build safer and more thoughtful online habits. Through an underwater world, memorable characters, short lessons, and interactive media, the project introduces complex topics such as privacy, online kindness, inappropriate content, AI-generated media, algorithms, screen-time balance, and responsible decision-making in a format younger users can understand.
Rather than teaching internet safety entirely through warnings and restrictions, I designed the experience around a simple behavioral message:
Pause. Think. Click.
The goal was to give children practical decision-making skills they can carry into new digital situations instead of relying only on a list of rules.
2.
The Problem
Children are interacting with increasingly complex digital environments at younger ages. They may encounter strangers, misleading information, persuasive algorithms, requests for personal information, inappropriate content, cyberbullying, and AI-generated images or videos before they fully understand how those systems work.
Traditional internet-safety education can also become heavily rule-based:
Don’t share this. Don’t click that. Don’t talk to strangers.
Those rules are important, but they cannot anticipate every situation a child may encounter online.
The deeper design challenge was helping children understand how to make safer choices when an adult is not immediately there to tell them what to do.
The deeper design challenge was helping children understand how to make safer choices when an adult is not immediately there to tell them what to do.
The internet opens the door to learning, creativity, friendship, and fun, but children also need the tools to surf the net safely.
3.
The User
Young Digital Explorers Learning to Navigate the Online World
Ages 7-12
Shark in the Net is designed for children ages 7–12 who are beginning to explore the internet with greater independence. These young users are naturally curious, eager to learn, and increasingly comfortable with technology, but they may not yet have the critical thinking skills or experience needed to recognize online risks.
Rather than overwhelming children with warnings or complicated explanations, the experience meets them at their developmental level, using colorful characters, relatable scenarios, visual storytelling, and memorable lessons to make internet safety engaging and approachable.
Secondary Users: Parents & Educators
Parents, caregivers, and educators also play an important role. Shark in the Net provides approachable educational material that can help adults introduce internet safety concepts, encourage meaningful conversations, and reinforce responsible online behaviors.
The Design Opportunity
Pause. Think. Click
How might we teach children to pause, evaluate what they encounter online, and make safer digital choices without making technology feel frightening or overwhelming:
Shark in the Net approaches internet safety as a decision-making skill rather than simply a collection of restrictions.
4.
Research & Discovery
Understanding How Children Learn to Navigate Digital Risks
Before developing Shark in the Net, I explored the challenges children encounter as they become increasingly independent online. My focus was on understanding how young users recognize potential dangers, process digital information, and develop responsible decision-making habits.
Three key areas guided the project’s educational approach:
01. Digital Awareness & Online Safety
Children encounter digital environments that can expose them to misleading information, privacy risks, cyberbullying, and potentially inappropriate content. Educational experiences should introduce these challenges in ways children can understand without creating unnecessary fear.
02. Learning Through Visual Storytelling
Complex concepts become more approachable when presented through relatable characters, engaging visuals, and simple scenarios. Shark in the Net uses an underwater environment to make digital safety lessons entertaining, memorable, and accessible.
03. Behavioral Learning & Decision-Making
Drawing on my background in behavioral therapy, I incorporated principles of modeling, prompting, and repetition into the educational experience. Rather than focusing exclusively on rules, the lessons encourage children to recognize situations, consider consequences, and make thoughtful decisions.
Chicken Clicking — Jeanne Willis
An illustrated children’s book that uses humor and storytelling to introduce online privacy, stranger danger, and the risks of sharing personal information. Its playful approach makes serious internet safety topics accessible to younger readers.
The Technology Tail — Julia Cook
A colorful, engaging story that teaches children about digital footprints and the lasting impact of their online actions. Through relatable characters and memorable illustrations, the book encourages responsible communication, kindness, and thoughtful decision-making online.
5.
Competitive Analysis
Exploring How Children’s Educational Experiences Encourage Safer Digital Behavior
To understand the existing landscape of children’s internet safety education, I examined illustrated books, character-driven learning experiences, and digital citizenship programs.
Resources such as Chicken Clicking and The Technology Tail demonstrate how storytelling and relatable characters can introduce complex safety concepts. Meanwhile, educational platforms such as Google’s Be Internet Awesome and Common Sense Education use interactive activities, animation, and structured lessons to reinforce responsible digital behavior.
The Design Opportunity
Traditional internet safety education often focuses on established risks, such as protecting passwords, avoiding strangers, and practicing online kindness. While these lessons remain essential, today’s digital landscape introduces new challenges that require children to think critically about the information they encounter.
Artificial intelligence can generate convincing images and videos, while recommendation algorithms influence the content children see and interact with. Understanding these systems is becoming an important part of digital literacy.
Key Takeaway
Shark in the Net was designed to bridge the gap between traditional internet safety education and the emerging challenges of an AI-driven digital world.