Keep it real online
Katrina Borthwick - 3rd March 2025
This week I accidentally stumbled upon an excellent resource created by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) called Keep It Real Online. This website has content targeted at youth, as well as content for teachers in Primary and Intermediate/Secondary School.
The site provides information about cyberbullying and the like. But I was particularly interested in the sections about misinformation. It’s really great to see this stuff available here in NZ.
One resource in particular that was kind of fun is the Bad News game. This is targeted at youth, but it works for adults too. The idea is to build up a hoard of virtual followers based on the choices you make - such as social media posts and headline selection. The more evil you are, the more followers you get. I particularly like the option every now and then to ‘send out the bots!’. I have to admit I did feel I needed a fluffy white cat on the arm of my chair while my hands were steepled in glee.
As a bit of an experiment I played the game myself, and asked my fellow Yeah Nah! podcast hosts to give it a go as well. Mark Honeychurch amassed 16.5K followers, and I managed 17.7K. Bronwyn Rideout is still trying to maximise her score, but has only managed 14K so far. So that means I’m at the top of the evilness ranking, at least until Bronwyn figures out the secret to getting a perfect score.
There are of course also lots of other resources beyond this. I won’t go into all that here, but this video is definitely worth checking out if you are a parent or educator: