Want your kids to develop computing skills and browse the web safely? Make them play the newly developed game Safety Snakes. Barefoot has given a modern twist to the classic game, which teaches your children to stay safe online while teaching them programming.

Barefoot is a popular name in the telecommunications industry, and ranks high on websites like CompareTV.  Their newly launched game holds up to their reputation, and is fun to play.

Safety Snakes is most suitable for children between 5 and 7 years of age, but kids up to 10 can play if they want to acquire development expertise.   The format of the game is exactly like Snake and Ladders but this time there aren’t any counters. Instead a bee robot comes with game, which then has to be programmed by the players such that it climbs the ladders and slides down the snakes.

The board features various squares that depict common online scenarios, aimed at teaching your child about good, safe, acceptable, unsafe and not acceptable online behaviours. All the good behaviours are shown at the bottom of ladders, whereas unsafe behaviours are shown near the snakes’ mouths.

The game is extremely fun to play and keeps your children engrossed. They remain focused on the game throughout, and learn how to conduct themselves online. They also program the bee robot for allowed game moves.  The game develops cortical thinking skills which come would come in so handy when your child would step out into the corporate world.

Barefoot is also offering a safety map upon registration of their website. A workshop would also be conducted, and parents and teachers can sign up.  Digital editions of the game are also available on the website.

The game will be available for free. Barefoot developed it in an attempt to show their support for the Safer Internet Day.

The players play together the classic snake game using a brand new board. The board is colourful, and allows the bee to travel from square to square.  Players roll a die, and then program the Bee Bot to move accordingly. During the process, snakes have to be avoided or the bee robot slides down them. Ladders are preferable and take the bot higher up in the game.

Resource Pack

The teachers are offered a free resource pack, which contains the following.

• A lesson plan that educates children about online safety and good behaviour
• An overview of the lesson plan
• A digital copy of the Bee-Bot mat or board. This can be printed on 4 papers with A3 size.
• An online version of the game. Children can play this from scratch.
• A video tutorial which shows primary school children using the Safety Snakes mat during a class
• Other useful resources like the command cards for the bee robot, a fake bot, which can be used if bee bot is inaccessible, and a printable square mat on which players can design their custom Bee Bot mats.

The resource pack can be downloaded from the Barefoot website.