"A Day in the Life of the Jos": The Design of an Educational Game on Privacy

The need to educate children on protecting their online privacy and security is pressing, as more children are going online unsupervised. This thesis examines how to make privacy and security education relevant to children's everyday life. We have partnered with MediaSmarts to create a new interactive educational game. As a starting point, we conducted a user study of an existing game, then we designed, prototyped, and evaluated a new game with children. In our new ``A Day in the Life of the Jos'' (ADITL) game, players follow Jo and Josie, a brother and sister, through their day and help them make positive privacy and security-related choices. Players then witness the outcomes of their decisions on the Jos' lives as they unfold within the game. Evaluation results show that participants found ADITL appealing and that adding gamification elements encouraged engagement with the educational material and promoted interaction with the lessons.