SurfSafe FAQ

SurfSafe Cyber Academy is a prevention-first cyber safety academy for kids ages 9 to 15.

Players join the SurfSafe Cyber Agency and learn practical online safety skills through six distinct interactive games with missions, skill badges, and department bosses.

Both. SurfSafe is built as a real game with distinct mechanics, visible consequences, and bosses. But every mission is designed around one or more of the 33 official SurfSafe skills.

Kids play. The learning is the gameplay: decision, visible consequence, brief explanation, next action.

The academy is designed for kids ages 9 to 15, from upper elementary through early high school.

It is built for parents, guardians, educators, and youth-program leaders who want online safety teaching that kids will actually engage with. Learn more on the parents page and the educators page.

SurfSafe was created by Jason Tocci, a cybersecurity engineer. The academy teaches the same defensive habits used to protect accounts and systems professionally, translated into missions kids actually want to play.

Six games, one per department of the Cyber Agency:

• Phishing Filter (Inbox Operations): inspect senders, links, and urgent messages
• Account Defense (Account Security Command): plan and deploy account protections
• Digital Footprint Detective (Digital Footprint Lab): investigate and connect privacy clues
• Identity Shield (Identity Protection Center): protect, compare, and verify identities
• Device Rescue (Device Safety Workshop): diagnose and repair device problems
• Trust Trap (Social Engineering Unit): recognize pressure tactics and disengage

Take the full tour on the games page.

The SurfSafe 33 are thirty-three specific, observable safety behaviors, such as checking who really sent a message, using a unique password for every account, or reducing location clues in photos.

Kids earn each skill badge by demonstrating the behavior in play, not by memorizing a definition. See the full system on the skills page.

Most missions take 2 to 6 minutes. Each includes a short brief, a playable objective, a visible consequence, quick feedback, and one recommended next step. Kids spend more time acting than reading.

Daily 7 is a short mixed-practice mode: seven quick challenges drawn from skills the player has unlocked across the academy.

It is designed for roughly 3 to 5 minutes of focused practice to keep important decisions familiar. Missing a day is never punished.

No. Gameplay does not require a child's email, real name, or real password. There is nothing sensitive to collect during child-facing play.

No. The academy is not funded by advertising or attention tracking. There is no behavioral advertising and no sponsor tracking.

No. There are no public leaderboards, no public profiles, and no chat between players. Progress is personal: mission stars, skill badges, and agent ranks.

No. The academy is dramatic in the way an adventure story is dramatic, not the way horror is. Bosses like The Phisher and the Data Kraken are stylized characters, and all scenarios are fictional.

Feedback never uses fear or shame. When a player makes a mistake, the game explains what was missed and offers a repair, not a failure screen.

Child-facing gameplay requests no real names, emails, passwords, verification codes, addresses, or birthdays. Adult-facing pages are separate, and the game clearly indicates when a player is leaving it.

Read the details in the safety and privacy section for parents and the full Privacy Policy.

SurfSafe Cyber Academy is in active development. Join early access to receive development updates and first access when the academy opens.

• Development updates as the academy is built
• First access at launch
• First word on pricing
• Practical family cyber-safety resources along the way

Pricing is not final yet. The plan is to make a portion of each game free, with full academy access available for families. Early-access members will hear the details first.

Whatever the final shape, there will be no child-facing purchase pressure inside the game.

Yes. SurfSafe can support schools, libraries, camps, clubs, and youth programs. Missions are short enough for class periods, and kids do not need email addresses to play.

Classroom-specific features such as dashboards are not available yet. The educator interest list is the best way to shape and hear about educational features as they develop.

Yes. SurfSafe builds a small set of Shopify apps for merchants. These products are separate from the Cyber Academy.

Find app details and support on the SurfSafe apps page.

Email support@surfsafe.io. Parent questions, educator interest, partnership ideas, and merchant app support all reach us there. We respond within 24 hours.