SACRAMENTO, Calif, Oct. 18, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- AirDogs, a detective style game that teaches kids that online crimes - software piracy, fraud, extortion, and bullying - have lifelong legal and social consequences for teens and their families was released today at the California Cyber Security Summit in Sacramento, California, Web Wise Kids and the Entertainment Software Association Foundation (ESAF) announced. The game is sponsored by the Entertainment Software Association Foundation and will be distributed by Web Wise Kids to classrooms in all fifty states. More than two million students across the country are expected to play the game, which was created by LiveWires Design Ltd.
"AirDogs, like all other Web Wise Kids' programs, is an innovative educational product that takes the message of Internet safety to today's technologically savvy youth in a format that is exclusively theirs -- a computer game," said Judi Westberg Warren, President of Web Wise Kids. "Our goal is to prepare youth to maintain a high standard of personal safety on the Internet."
AirDogs, a new Internet safety game for teens ages 13 to 16, is based on a real-life criminal piracy case, and will be an important component of Web Wise Kids' comprehensive Internet safety education program. The game has been designed for students to use in a classroom under the supervision of a teacher or police officer, and can be completed in one class period.
In the game students meet Luke, a teenager propelled to counterfeit software in his basement in order to advance his snowboarding career. Students are challenged to solve clues dealing with credit card fraud, software piracy, and extortion. AirDogs was designed to open a dialogue with teenagers so they can become aware of the consequences of being involved in Internet crime. The message is clear: theft and extortion are crimes, whether you're sixteen or sixty.
The ESA Foundation, the charitable arm of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), has provided a grant to encourage distribution of the game, which Web Wise Kids expects to reach over two million teens across the country and hopes to make available to the public in 2007.
"Web Wise Kids has made tremendous strides over the years with their games created to teach young people how to be safe on the Internet, and AirDogs is another important step toward that crucial goal," said Doug Lowenstein, president of the ESA, the association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. "There's no doubt that computer and video games can be powerful teaching tools. We are proud to continue our partnership with Web Wise Kids, working together to use games to educate kids and keep them safe."
Web Wise Kids is a California nonprofit organization founded with the mission of "empowering today's youth to make wise choices online." Since 2002, the company has specialized in providing easy to use, school-approved Internet safety education to youth ages 11 to 16 through computer games. For more information about Web Wise Kids please visit www.webwisekids.org.
LiveWires Design LTD is a multimedia company based in Vancouver, Canada and is the designer of AirDogs as well as other computer games intended to teach social messages in a fun, engaging format. For more information about LiveWires please visit www.livewwwires.com.
The ESA is the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet. ESA members collectively account for more than 90 percent of the $7 billion in entertainment software sales in the U.S. in 2005, and billions more in export sales of entertainment software. For more information about the ESA, please visit www.theESA.com.