Firefox for Kids

Dietrich Ayala, Firefox engineer, presented to 120 fourth graders as part of career day on various topics including Firefox, Mozilla, and open source software. Here are a few of the more interesting quotes from his presentation notes:

• Though almost every kid said they surfed the web, when I asked if they knew what a "browser" was, only a couple kids knew. However, I know that they actually *were* surfing the web because of the questions that they asked. It seemed that the browser was a piece of infrastructure that blended into their general computer experience.
• Anywhere from 5-10 kids in each group had heard of Firefox.
• 1-2 kids in each group had heard of “open-source”.
• The kids knew of viruses and phishing. They didn’t understand what they were, but knew that they were bad, and from the internet.
• They thought the Firefox logo was cool. They thought the Mozilla logo was cooler :) Especially the boys. Several started grilling me on the anatomical incorrectness of the dinosaur: “If it’s from the pleocistene family it’d have a bump on it’s head and the nostrils would be in a different place.” I had no response to that. (Dietrich)

I suspect that some of these findings would apply to adults, too. Many people do not really understand what a browser is or what viruses and phishing are.

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