Students in Rose Doerksen’s Grade 6 class at Haahuupayak School are the first in Western Canada to test-drive a new video game that teaches children how to avoid Internet predators.
The game is called “Air Dogs,” and was created by Livewires Design of Vancouver. Several years ago, Haahuupayak students served as “alpha testers” for the Air Dogs game prototype, and their input earned the school a first look at the finished product, according to RCMP Aboriginal Policing Officer Const. Scott McLeod.
“This school was part of a worldwide testing process. The students love it, and they’re the first kids west of Ontario to see it,” McLeod said during a classroom session on Tuesday.
This is the final installment of a three-part game package from Livewires Design. The first, “Missing,” focused on Internet pedophiles, and was based on real-life investigations. The program subsequently resulted in a number of arrests after players alerted police to predators attempting to lure victims online. In one instance, Victoria police arrested one suspect who was about to board the ferry to Port Angeles with an underage girl he had lured into joining him.
The second game, “Mirror Image,” focuses on the issue of predators luring young girls with promises of modeling careers.
On Tuesday, the Grade 6 sleuths took in Episode 3 of the final six-part game. Air Dogs is based on one specific incidence that involved online credit card theft, stolen property and, later, cyber-bullying when the young man (known as Luke), who had been drawn into the scheme, tried to extricate himself from the ongoing criminal operation.
Air Dogs refers to high-level snowboarders. The real Luke was the son of an RCMP officer and an American mother, who was able to use his dual citizenship to train with the U.S. Junior snowboarding team in Vermont.
One hitch: the elite-level U.S. coach had used a connection in the United Arab Emirates to acquire credit card information that allowed counterfeiters to create bogus cards that were used to purchase over $100,000 of merchandise.
“The coach gave Luke the credit cards when he was at the training centre. Luke took them back to Canada and purchased laptop computers and brought them over the border. The coach then sold them online for cash,” McLeod explained.
In Episode 3, Luke’s father realizes his son is involved in something suspicious and contacts U.S. authorities. The students re-create Luke’s father’s steps to hack into the laptop his son has been using for his illegal activities.
Together they find a series of e-mails and an unexpected bank statement from the “Continental Bank of Canada” with a balance of $9,000. Where did he get his hands on that much money?
A panicked e-mail from his girlfriend: somebody has created a website, www.lukethepuke.com, with photos of activities neither of them want to go public. Somebody is threatening to expose Luke and his girlfriend to the authorities, including the executive of the snowboarding team.
“The real Luke was worried that he might lose his place on the team,” McLeod said, adding that this possibility actually overshadowed his fear of arrest for theft.
The students use process of elimination and a number of clues from the various e-mails to correctly guess the identity of the two older snowboarding team members that are threatening Luke.
But Luke has bigger problems as Episode 3 continues. On a split screen, Luke and his father are confronted by an official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He has traced over $100,000 in illegal purchases made in Canada, by Luke, and the crooked coach is holding the major portion of the cash. Luke is facing serious jail time, unless he helps the authorities bring the coach to justice.
“The whole idea is to stop the crooked coach who is victimizing his students,” McLeod said.
Without revealing too much, he explained, in subsequent episodes, the coach will attempt to flee north to Canada as Homeland Security and the RCMP try to intercept him.
“It’s like a visual graphic crime novel,” McLeod said. “It’s a wonderful game and the kids are engaged in participating at a number of levels.”
On one level, the game delivers a graphic warning of the many pitfalls out there for young people who spend time online. There are any number of predators lurking and a whole spectrum of opportunities to be dragged into dangerous and/or criminal activity.
Part of the Air Dogs message is about online bullying. Sometimes, it goes beyond schoolyard shaming and into the world of coercion and blackmail.
The game also teaches young people about how criminal investigation works. Sometimes, the authorities don’t play nice. Sometimes, they use the same pressure tactics as the bad guys.
McLeod said Air Dogs should see wide release in schools across North America.
“It has now been adopted by the Ontario Board of Education,” he added.
While there are some real-world lessons for children, as student Hector observed, “It’s really fun.” Fortunately, he hasn’t encountered any situations like this in real life, he added. Yet.
“The game is really well-created, and it’s really fun to pretend to be a cyber cop,” Memphis said, adding, “and it’s fun hacking e-mails.”
Angelo said the part where Luke is bullied was scary.
“But they’re actors – it’s not real,” he added. “If that happened to me I think I would try to tell my dad.”
The students said it is good to have contact with the RCMP through Const. McLeod.
“I don’t want to be a police, though,” Hector said. “You have to get pepper-sprayed in the eyes before you can join.”
