Simply Dumb

At my undergraduate lecture today on National Security, the professor was talking about US Intelligence and familiarizing the students with the various agencies’ websites.  The last site we visited, belonging to the National Security Agency (NSA), had a little surprise. 

See if you can figure out what it is in the screenshot below.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.

That’s right, believe it or not, the NSA has a Kids’ Page!  I was sitting next to a fellow TA who had a laptop and we followed the link.  Here is what it had to say on the first screen of the html (v. the flash) page:

Hi Kids!
Welcome to the NSA/CSS Kids’ page.

We’re the CryptoKids and we love cryptology.

What’s cryptology? Cryptology is making and breaking codes. It’s so cool. We make codes so we can send secret messages to our friends. And we try to figure out what other people are writing about by breaking their codes. It’s a lot of fun.

On this site, you can learn all about codes and ciphers, play lots of games and activities, and get to know each of us – Crypto Cat™, Decipher Dog™, Rosetta Stone, Slate, Joules, T.Top, and, of course, our leader CSS Sam.

You can also learn about the National Security Agency/Central Security Service – they’re America’s real codemakers and codebreakers. Our Nation’s leaders and warfighters count on the technology and information they get from NSA/CSS to get their jobs done. Without NSA/CSS, they wouldn’t be able to talk to one another without the bad guys listening and they wouldn’t be able to figure out what the bad guys were planning.

We hope you have lots of fun learning about cryptology and NSA/CSS. You might be part of the next generation of America’s codemakers and codebreakers.

That’s right kids, being an American super spy is super cool! 

Does anyone else think that this page is just a wee bit inappropriate for the target audience.  Don’t think for a second that this is a “kids page” for teenagers.  If you don’t believe me, check out screenshots from the flash page below.

The site features character profiles for cartoon NSA agents, online games, and even a resource on how to apply for a job with the agency or in the intelligence community in general. 

Me thinks our national intelligence service might just be scraping the bottom of the barrel with this site.  Does this eerily remind anyone else of the old Joe Camel advertising strategy?

Check out the NSA Kids’ site for yourself here.

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