Political Penguin

Public service broadcasts often get it in the neck for being a bit on the crap side and in many cases this isn’t unjustified. The latest one on the dangers of drinking excessively is quite good, and of course the classic that scared the shit out of my generation was the AIDS advert from the 80′s, still as ominous to watch now as it was then.
That’s why I’d like to share this little one with you. It’s a German advert about the dangers of the internet. OK, it’s all in German but often it isn’t the words that are spoken that convey the message but the imagery used. It’s cleverness is the seamingly normal context in which it is set and is well worth a shufty.

As a parent it makes you think about how and when I would consider it appropriate to introduce my own son to the wonders of the net. It’s not one of those subjects you can seek advice from your own parents about as it simply wasn’t there when I was that young.
For me I’m pretty much of the opinion that to try and insulate children from all threats and dangers in life is a fruitless and ultimately impossible task.
The best that one can hope for is to prepare them by being honest, discussing the issues openly and as much as we might teach our kids the Green Cross Code (is it still called that these days) to keep them safe on the streets, we should do the same for other areas of potential danger.
I for one will be passing on my own techie knowledge so that to use a slightly innapropriate phrase, he will go in to the situation all tooled up and if needs be, be able to defend himself when it comes to the net. The problem is however, that although I have those skills, very few parents will and that’s why I like this advert, it gets the message across and as I believe this is an initiative funded by the EU in relation to The Safer Internet Programme it’s backed up by quite a bit of advice and resources for parents.
In closing, I’ll show my ignorance. I don’t watch much British television so I’d be interested if either this advert has been dubbed into English and used here, which if it hasn’t it really should be or if we’ve done a similar awareness campaign and what was our adverts like?