Did you know that “Pokémon” is one of the most searched key words on the internet today? That means more people are searching for information about Pokémon and things related to Pokémon than almost anything else. And why not? There are tons of great sites out there. Some of them were designed by companies like Nintendo, and others were put up by kids around the world.
I think that’s pretty cool. But it also worries me. It means that thousands of kids are out there surfing the net and maybe some of them don’t know the rules for being safe on the internet. Now I kid around and get goofy about a lot of stuff in these video game books. I think they should be fun to read. But internet safety is something I never joke about. Kids should be as safe as possible and that means when they are out there on the internet, too. I never joke around about it. So this is a serious chapter.
If you read the last book, this chapter will look very familiar. The rules of safety haven’t changed. Read it again, just to make sure you have all the basic rules down. Your parents, of course, might have additional rules that you should follow, but these are the very basics.
Good safety on the internet is the same as good safety anywhere. You would not accept candy from strangers, so why accept computer downloads from strangers? Of course, sometimes on the internet you do “talk” to strangers, so that’s why you have to be really, really careful. People who seem “nice” on-line can turn out to be really bad. So you have to be extra careful.
Basic Internet Rules
1. Never, ever give anyone on the internet any private information. That means never give them your real name, your address, telephone number, or even the name of your school or the town where you live. That includes e-mail and posting it on a home page, too.
2. If anyone on-line posts anything to you that makes you feel uncomfortable, tell your parents immediately.
3. Never ever agree to “get together” or meet anyone in person who you met on-line.
4. Never agree to send anyone you have “met” on-line a picture of yourself.
5. Never accept any downloads or computer programs from someone you don’t personally know.
6. Stay in public or open places on the net. Avoid “private” conversations via e-mail or other means.
7. Don’t fill out those “profile” forms in chat rooms or anywhere else.
Finding Pokémon On-Line
Type in Pokémon to a search engine and you’ll get a lot of sites. I did just that recently and my computer came back with a whopping 50,000 sites. But when I started clicking on them, a lot of the sites were either down or gone and … well, who the heck has the time to look at them all?
I don’t know about you, but when I’m on-line looking for something, I want information pretty fast. I don’t want to look through a ton of uninteresting sites.
So here are some tips I’ve come up with to cut down on the clutter.
A) Be Specific. If you are using a search engine that lets you narrow down your results, then by all means use that feature. It would work something like this: Enter the search for Pokémon. When you get the 50,000 results back, then enter and search for “Pokémon cards” (or just cards or whatever else you are interested it) within those 50,000 sites. That will trim down those 50,000 sites a lot. If you don’t have that feature on the search engine, then enter “Pokémon cards” from the start to get good results.
B) Start at the Source. If you are interested in Pokémon, then start with the Nintendo site. It’s a great site with tons of information. Chances are good that if you are looking for something specific, it will be on that site. If you are looking for information about the movie or the TV show, then start with sites dedicated to those things. I’ve listed some of them below.
If you are interested in some other product or something like that, find out who makes it and search for the company’s web site. Chances are they will have a section on their site dedicated to Pokémon. You might have to do a search inside the site, but that’s pretty easy.
C) Variety Counts. Use different search engines. You’ll be surprised, results for each search can be a lot different. The Web is huge and no engine can search all of it. There are some sites that will search by using more than one search engine at a time, but they don’t give you the complete results for each engine.
D) Be Creative. There are a lot of interesting sites out there that may be buried in the 50,000 results. The trick is to get them to the top of the list. So instead of typing in Pikachu or Pokémon, type in “Pikachu-Japan,” and you might find a really interesting site put up by a Japanese kid who likes the game.
E) Be Safe. And above all, be safe. Always follow safety rules when surfing the net.
Some Good Pokémon Sites
Please note that some of the links referenced in this work are no longer active.
This is the official site for the TV show. However, you do have to click on this site to take you to the Pokémon part of the site.
The official Nintendo site dedicated to Pokémon!
The official Nintendo site for all things Nintendo. Great Game Boy tips and other games!
The official Pokémon movie site!
This is the site for Game Sages. They are not just Pokémon, but have a great collection of video game news and other information for all systems.
The official web site for Eric Stuart, the actor who does the voices of Brock, James and others on the show. A great site! Eric is also a musician and songwriter, so there are tons of stuff on his musical career as well as his Poké career.
This site includes 50 really, really good Pokémon web sites, a lot of them done by kids.
Here are three really good search engines:
A great funny name for a search engine, but also very easy to use.
Ask Jeeves for Kids is one of the top search engine sites that uses multiple search engines. What is really great about Ask Jeeves for Kids is that you can type in a question and it will give you sites that may have the answers. For example, if you type in: “Who makes Pokémon?” it will lead you to Nintendo.
The Dogpile, another multiple search engine site with a funny name. It uses a lot of search engines and gets results.
Some Sites for Parents
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). This is the organization that rates video games. They offer a fairly current list of video games for all systems and ratings. The rating system and procedures by which they arrive at the ratings is also explained in depth.
The Interactive Digital Software Association is a trade association whose members include video game manufacturers.
Children’s SoftwareRevue
Reviews of educational software products.