Creating Kids Content.

An important stage in producing my web content was to ensure it was suitable and understandable for my target audience of 9-11 year olds.

To test this, I interviewed my 9 and a half year-old cousin.

Me: If I said to you I was making a website of the development of technology would you understand what that means?
9 year old: Yeah, it's going to be like a history.
Me: Yes, that's right but it will show you what technology was created in each year and how it revolutionised the way people lived. Do you know what revolutionised means?
9 year old: Erm, changed and made better.
Me: Yes, but it's more of a huge, dramatic change.

Me: Do you know what the term Global Village means?
9 year old: No.
Me: A Global Village is what can be created by everyone using technology together, at once, all over the world. A village is something you think of as being a small group of people, and global you think of being the whole world, so combined, it's like having everyone in the world in a small village. They communicate, share, learn and create together all via technology.
9 year old: Ohh, like Skype and email.
Me: Yes they help create a Global Village, but this is on a much much bigger scale.
9 year old: Cool!

Me: What about a Digital Divide?
9 year old: I don't know.
Me: Well a Digital Divide, is what happens to people who aren't part of the Global Village. There are some countries and places in the world that are not fortunate enough to have the computers and mobile phones that we have therefore they become separated and it becomes difficult to communicate and learn things with these people.
9 year old: Oh, like the people for red nose day.
Me: Yes, the poor countries that you raise money for are the type of people that don't even have electricity let alone internet.
9 year old: People should send them computers then we could talk to them and wouldn't have to fly to Africa.
Me: That is a nice idea but the trouble is there isn't a lot of money to provide children with computers and many places don't have internet connections. However, there are some charities that are beginning to do exactly what you've just said and give school children computers to share to help them learn more about the world.

This mini extract from the interview enabled me to tailor some of what i'd written to be more comprehendible for this age group, however something that I had learnt from this interview was that i'd previously underestimated the technical knowledge and awareness of this age group. This 9 year-old was able to explain to me what a mega-pixel was, how to get an internet connection and could describe what words like evolution and revolutionised meant with confidence. This has been an insightful part of my web design process, and it know means that I can use complex terms with the confidence that this age group should understand and enjoy what their reading.

This interview also confirmed to me that the whole aim of my website; to get children to understand the difference between a Global Village and a Digital Divide was necessary, as he did not know what this was and after some basic explaining he had grasped the concepts. My proposal stated that children will become ignorant to the availability of technology if they are not informed of the misfortune of others around the world, and this interview clarified my concern and reason for creating this website.