Making digital privacy education
feel more rewarding
CTRL-U is a game about digital privacy to young people. It started because in our surroundings, we realize children started being online early. But they are rarely taught on how everyday digital choices can affect their privacy.
“How might we help children understand digital risks and build safer habits?”
We interviewed our friends
We started close to home by asking our closest friends about the digital-safety ed they had received growing up. From the interview, 11 out of 12 told us that they only learned about online privacy when they become young adults. This was supported by UNICEF’s 2023 study that only 37.5% children in Central Java, East Java, and South Sulawesi ever received the education.
Our friends also shared the uncomfortable experiences they feel while experiencing the online world. This made us wonder whether younger users are entering the internet before they have the knowledge to navigate it safely.
At junior high, I was stalked by someone who pieced together my location from details I shared online, even though I never gave them my address. They found my classmates, old videos, and even planned a work trip to my city just because they knew I lived there.
I was also sent unwanted sexual images by a stranger at junior high.
I clicked on a phishing link and got scammed.
I was already an active online-shopper since I was elementary school. I was scammed because I did not cross-check the shop.
Why privacy education fails to engage children
Privacy risks often feel distant, while the rewards of being online are immediate. Posting, clicking, sharing, and interacting can feel fun right now, while the consequences of giving away personal data may not appear until much later.
At the same time, digital privacy education is often delivered through formal lessons, workshops, or informational materials. We saw an opportunity to make learning feel closer to the way young people actually experience the internet: interactive, personal, and grounded in everyday choices.
User persona
Andi is our primary persona. He has just received his first phone, making this an important moment to introduce digital privacy before online habits start to form. His parent is a secondary user who wants to guide him online without limiting his curiosity and exploration.
Putri represents teens who are already active on social media. She knows how to use the platforms, but may not always recognize when an online situation becomes risky or what to do when something feels wrong.
The idea
To create an experience that children would naturally want, we explored different kinds of solutions: from games to education. We were inspired by Spotify Wrapped, Buzzfeed’s Quizzes, MBTI. People want to fill in the surveys because they want to know about themselves.
The solution
We also want our products to meet where young people already are: online presence and their offline environments. The result is an ecosystem that begins with the CTRL-U game and expands through social content, interactive offline installations, and school workshops.
The Game
CTRL-U turns digital privacy education into a playable experience based on situations young people already encounter online. Players move through familiar places such as Home, School, and Café, make decisions in different scenarios, and learn the possible consequences of each choice.
Instead of simply telling players what is right or wrong, the game asks them to play, decide, and reflect on how they would actually behave.
Personas
Every choice in CTRL-U contributes to a player's digital behaviour profile. For our first iteration, we identified five common behaviours that appear across social-media activities:
The player's two strongest behaviours are then combined to reveal one of 10 CTRL-U personas. The personas are not designed to label someone as “safe” or “unsafe.” Instead, they make the learning feel more personal by showing how everyday online habits can lead to different privacy decisions.
We didn’t want the persona reveal to be the end of the experience. After discovering their CTRL-U persona, players receive a personalized “What’s Next?” plan based on the behaviours they showed throughout the game.
Offline Installations
We want to raise awareness about the digital privacy risks that can happen in environments. We started with a photo, because it can reveal more than we realize. The CTRL-U AI-Vision Photobooth turns everyday photo into a quick privacy learning experience.
Players take a photo, while AI Vision looks for privacy-sensitive details that may be visible in the background. The experience then encourages them to check what they might be sharing before posting it online.
The photobooth is designed to bring CTRL-U into places young people already spend time in and create an easy entry point into the full learning experience.
Workshop in School
CTRL-U can also become a classroom activity rather than only an individual game. Students move through a five-step learning process:
They first experience realistic scenarios through the game and make their own choices. The session ends by turning what they discovered in the game into discussions with peers and teachers, and applying these habits to real-life.
What’s next?
We want the app to keep innovating and moving through the developing of tech and time. CTRL-U is made to be modular, new situations can be added without rebuilding the entire experience.
Developer Journey
CTRL-U is designed to evolve as digital behaviour and privacy risks change. That is why we decided to document our development process. We included experiments, iterations, mistakes, findings, and blog posts along the way.
Reflections
Key Takeaways
Right now, CTRL-U is only available on desktop. But we realized that different devices and screen sizes can completely change how the experience feels.
Personally, I learned how to collaborate with people from purely design backgrounds. It taught me to communicate across different ways of thinking, value perspectives outside my own, and most importantly, trust my teammates and their expertise.