Inspired by work such as The Analogies Project, ISF research on security behavioural awareness and occurrences we read about every day, it struck me that it would be useful to come up with something to enhance the online behaviours of the next generation in a hyper-connected world.
I figured that If grown-ups can modify neural pathways to change their ways and if story-telling is such an effective means of achieving that, then why not fuse together the two things I spend most of my time doing – managing cyber security and reading children’s books to my two daughters?
If I could write a story that had two main ambitions; to be fun to read but also embedded those desired behaviours within its covers, couldn’t that be of value?
So that’s what I did.
First of all I wrote down the top ten lessons I would want to instil in a young person growing up in the next phase of the technology revolution, when their engagement with the cyber world will surely become all encompassing.
These included: What is online bullying and how do you deal with it? What is the impact of losing your privacy? What are trolls? What happens when you publish/post something you may live to regret? Who might be watching you? Compromise of your personal information? Who can you trust?
I then applied a liberal sprinkling of imagination to fashion a fantasy story that fitted around this. My daughter (aged 7 at the time) and I were reading a lot of Enid Blyton books hence some of the bizarre characters and unpredictable happenings. However rather than flying away in a Wishing Chair or clambering up The Faraway Tree to reach the magical worlds the central character (Millie Tyler) accesses these through her enchanted tablet computer.
Hence the name The Magic Zablet…
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A Kindle version is available too!
