Dialogue between child and parent is also a cyber insurance

Murck, also known from the television series Feuten and Spangas, exchanged his acting work for the HackShield mission: to train 10,000,001 children aged 8 to 12 to become Cyber Agents. Not only to protect themselves, but also their environment from the online dangers. "I follow everything about new technology. And yes, there are many dangers such as grooming, cyberbullying, sexting and you name it. But what I have difficulty with is the often negative attention that leads to conservative behaviour. At home, at school and in the political debate."

According to him, new technology also offers many opportunities. HackShield was born from that approach. An exciting game that tells children a positive story about the digital future, without closing their eyes to the dangers.

Safe experimentation

Due to the rapid development, new dangers are constantly being added, but Murck sees one common thread when things go wrong online. "What is missing is the open dialogue between child and parent, educator or caregiver. We still have to deal with a culture of fear, shame and victim blaming. What children need is a safe space to experiment. A space in which it is allowed to make mistakes. And in which you can talk about what is happening online from a place of curiosity and forgiveness."

Sharing personal content: yes or no?

In HackShield, children are trained in a safe, digital environment to become Cyber Agents who take on DarkHacker. The game is based on chess and adversarial thinking. As a result, they learn to assess risks, think in scenarios and set boundaries. They end up in situations where they have to choose: click on a link or not? Share personal content with a stranger or not? Or report something suspicious to an adult or not? They also learn what a strong password, disinformation and an unsafe website are.

Kudos to the cyber agents!

The physical world also plays a role in the game, as children are encouraged online to teach the people around them something as well. "That's important, because many mums, dads, masters and teachers don't understand it at all," Murck jokes. "And we link whoever leads the score list to a local police officer or mayor. Every week, a Cyber Agent is honoured somewhere in the Netherlands. In this way we give children the feeling that they are really contributing something."

Tough competition

More than 380,000 HackShield accounts have already been created in the Netherlands. And by 2024 alone, 175,000 new players will have joined. A record. In addition, it is used in no fewer than 200 municipalities and in more and more schools. But according to Murck, it is tough competition. "We compete with free-to-play games like Fortnite and social media. But I am really convinced that we can use games very well to make children digitally wiser and to hold them accountable for their role in society. That's why we're so ambitious and pulling out all the stops for those 10 million agents."

More dialogue is also insurance

Insurers can also support HackShield and thus teach even more children how to move smartly and safely online. Murck: "And stimulating an open dialogue between generations about what can go wrong online is actually also a kind of cyber insurance. It reduces the risk of psychological suffering and digital damage due to, for example, phishing and bank or Whatsapp fraud." He therefore calls on insurers to help. And to train as many Cyber Agents as possible together with companies (such as Microsoft, DNB, Fox-IT, Cyberveilig Nederland and Interpolis), municipalities, police and SchoolTV.