Garfield Offers Kid-Safe Interactive Community, Internet Safety Kit -- THE Journal

SecurityPrivacy

Garfield Offers Kid-Safe Interactive Community, Internet Safety Kit

09/01/02

PCS Edventures! is now offering its customers Children's Technology Group's Garfield Island, a safe and secure Internet community for students, available online at www.garfieldisland.com. Developed for children from 4 to 14 years of age, Garfield Island is a free Web browser that allows students to surf only pre-approved Web sites. Additional free features include Desktop Lockdown, which prevents students from accessing files and programs, as well as allows parents and teachers to block students from accessing certain Web sites.

For a fee, students and teachers can join Club Surf, the official and exclusive online community for kids within Garfield Island. Club Surf members receive talking e-mail, encouraging words and task reminders, as well as language and personal information filters. They also receive exclusive educational games and activities, access to exclusive content, and a monthly newsletter customized for children and adults. In addition, Club Surf features an animated talking Garfield as the Surf Guard who comes to life on screen to read e-mail, tell jokes and recite preprogrammed information.

Garfield Island also features a "Teacher Center," which provides a downloadable Classroom Internet Safety Kit to help educate students about the dangers of the Internet. The kit includes a lesson plan, an Internet Safety Award and a flyer to send home to parents about Garfield Island's free Internet safety tool. The "Teacher Center" also allows educators to recommend their favorite Web sites to help build a kid-friendly, educational, fun site for students. PCS Edventures!, Boise, ID, (800) 429-3110, www.edventures.com. Children's Technology Group, Golden, CO, (720) 533-4888, www.abctg.com.

E-Mail this page

Printable Format

Featured

Nonprofit LawZero to Work Toward Safer, Truthful AI

Turing Award-winning AI researcher Yoshua Bengio has launched LawZero, a nonprofit aimed at developing AI systems that prioritize safety and truthfulness over autonomy.
Report Identifies Malicious Use of AI in Cloud-Based Cyber Threats

A recent report from OpenAI identifies the misuse of artificial intelligence in cybercrime, social engineering, and influence operations, particularly those targeting or operating through cloud infrastructure. In "Disrupting Malicious Uses of AI: June 2025," the company outlines how threat actors are weaponizing large language models for malicious ends — and how OpenAI is pushing back.
You've Paid for Tutoring. Here's How to Make Sure It Works.

As districts and states nationwide invest in tutoring, it remains one of the best tools in our educational toolkit, yielding positive impacts on student learning at scale. But to maximize return on investment, both financially and academically, we must focus on improving implementation.
New National Academy for AI Instruction to Provide Free AI Training for Educators

In an effort to "transform how artificial intelligence is taught and integrated into classrooms across the United States," the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, and the United Federation of Teachers, is launching the National Academy for AI Instruction, a $23 million initiative that will provide access to free AI training and curriculum for all AFT members, beginning with K-12 educators.