"Digital Security Dialogue"
There are still serious issues regarding online safety and ethics that can harm less experienced users. Researchers have built upon familiar human verification techniques to incorporate discrete learning into the process so users can learn about online safety and ethics while also verifying whether they are human. The results of trials reveal that users responded positively to the experience and felt they learned something from microlearning sessions. A group of University of Tokyo researchers surveyed Internet users in Japan and found that most have had little opportunity to learn how to stay safe and secure online. According to the researchers, it would be unreasonable to expect this same majority to actively seek out the information they would require to educate themselves. To address this, the team proposed incorporating educational materials about online safety and ethics into a typical user's daily Internet experience. They chose to use something that many users will frequently encounter during their normal online activities, which is human verification. Examples of human verification methods include a pop-up window asking a user to type out an unclear word, rearrange puzzle pieces, click on a specific class of object in a set of images, or something similar. They are examples of human verification methods that can guard against the automated malicious exploitation of websites. The team decided to test a system called DualCheck, which replaces these verification tasks with questions designed to improve user knowledge of online safety and ethics. The way the user moves their mouse or pointing device can be used to determine whether they are a human or an automated bot. This article continues to discuss the DualCheck system and how it uses human verification tasks for online safety microlearning.