advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

The NSA’s website for kids teaches them about the joys of spying

For the last nine years the NSA has had a website aimed at children that seeks to educate them about the NSA with friendly looking cartoon characters. The ‘America’s CryptoKids’ website stars a host of anthropomorphic animals replete with great-sounding, sometimes trademarked, alliterated names like Crypto Cat. Each of the nine furry or feathered characters explains a particular function of the NSA and seeks to introduce children to the concepts like cryptography, cryptanalysis and language analysis.

The site has everything that a parent would look for when choosing a good website for their young child to play around on. Games, puzzles and challenges are accompanied by DIY craft projects for home and even printable paint-by-numbers pictures of the cast of characters.

The innocuous fun is also accompanied by a ‘How can I work for the NSA?’ section which explains how children can get involved in high school and college programs to fast track a career in the NSA.

Marketing to children isn’t a new concept, you just have to look at big business, in particular fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC, who have used toys to market their food to children for decades. The NSA could certainly use a few people seeing them in a better light after the whole Edward Snowden affair cast a gloomy shadow over the organisation.

Social media has already changed the way that people view privacy by making it seem ‘normal’ to share every detail of your life with a crowd of strangers. If the NSA manages to educate children to believe that spying on people is perfectly normal then they may be on the way to restoring their glossy image for generations to come.

Image: Shutterstock

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement