Chapter 6: Hector’s World™: Educating Young Children About Life Online

Hector’s World is a New Zealand online safety education resource now being used in a number of different countries. This chapter offers a review of the evolution of Hector’s World (HW) and some of the key factors that influenced its development. This is a chronicle of how a New Zealand charity identified the need for cybersafety education for ‘digital tots’ as a serious priority. The organization then developed an ambitious educational response while endeavoring to keep pace with rapid technological and social change. The challenges that were encountered during this development were sometimes formidable. This account of the decisions made and the lessons learned during the development of Hector’s World may be helpful to those involved in the education and protection of the very young online, and of particular interest to those already using the resource.