New Irish animated series prepares pre-schoolers for life online

Creator of 'Alva's World' says fairytales of his childhood inspired the RTÉ series 

 The idea of a cartoon heroine, who’d teach pre-schoolers essential truths about the internet before they ever go online, occurred to Andrew Kavanagh of Kavaleer Productions after he noticed an unsettling trend.

Following on from Irish Examiner’s recently published introduction to Alva’s World (exa.mn/AlvasWorld), Kavanagh shares his motivation for creating the new RTÉjr series.

“I started developing the show five years ago – increasingly younger children were getting access to phones, tablets and devices. I could see this trending. I thought a lot of people had their head in the sand about it.” 

Kavanagh wanted to create something for parents like him who hadn’t grown up with internet or social media. A dad of two boys – now aged 12 and eight – he was “terrified” reading stories about cyber-bullying. “All kinds of horrible things were happening around kids a little older than mine. I realised I needed to learn.” 

Recalling the fairytales of his own childhood, how there was always a big bad wolf, he says: “Whether you knew it or not, you were being taught to be careful, not to trust everything you’re told – somebody might give you something and it mightn’t be what you think. I thought I could do a fairytale about the internet.” 

Alva’s World explores online safety through the eyes of Alva, her family and pet robot Mo. Like archetypal figures Dorothy, who goes into Oz, and Alice, who enters Wonderland, Alva goes into the magical world of Gizmo. It’s a world that echoes the internet environment and social-media landscape, with all its delights and dangers. Young audiences are drawn in through fun stories and compelling characters while being subtly taught about problems online they’ll undoubtedly face – and given tools for solving them.

CyberSafeIreland CEO Alex Cooney says Alva’s World ticks important educational boxes for very young up-and-coming internet users. CyberSafeIreland’s educational programme works with eight to 13 year olds. “In an ideal world, we’d start sooner. Alva’s World is an opportunity to reach younger audiences with good messaging in an age-appropriate way.”

Cooney says there’s real breadth in the cartoon’s messages. “So many good messages are wrapped up in an episode – like using privacy settings on your account and not sharing your location or talking to people you don’t know.” 

Important messages considering that CyberSafeIreland’s just-launched annual report on online behaviour of eight to 12-year-olds found that 31% of children game online with people they don’t know in real life – and 61% had been contacted by a stranger in an online game.

• Alva’s World, RTÉjr, Monday-Friday: 8:30am, 2pm, 6.25pm; weekends: 8am, 11.45am, 6.40pm; also on RTÉ Player

CyberSafeIreland survey findings:

• 93% of eight to 12 year olds own their own smart device. Boys are much more likely to own a gaming console than girls.
• 65% have their own social media/instant messaging account.
• 84% speak to parents/carers regularly about what they’re seeing/doing online, 13% never do and 3% only once a year.
• Just 4% say they’re ‘never’ allowed online or not very often (13%). A third can go online for an agreed amount of time every day; 28% can go online whenever they want.
• 87% have rules at home for going online, 13% say ‘there are no rules’.