More useless govt. websites for kids

Last week I discussed the useless children's websites from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA. Today Wonkette brings news of another useless government website for kids - NRO Junior, the children's website of the National Reconnaissance Office, which features useful content such as this:

And the article in The Nation that inspired the Wonkette post brings news that there are even more of these things as a result of a 1997 order from President Clinton mandating "that all government agencies set aside virtual space on their websites for child-friendly material."

Yet another example is the Crypto Kids website of the National Security Agency, which features wacky such as "Crypto Cat, versed in Navajo, the language of the storied code talkers of World War II; Decipher Dog, a cryptanalyst who learned the fine points of broadband networking from his stepmother, an NSA network engineer; T. Top, a turtle who knows how to design and build computers; and a language analyst named Rosetta Stone." Here's the whole codebreaking team:

Unlike Simon Apter, the author of the Nation article, I have no ideological objection to intelligence agencies seeking to appeal to children, but I do have an objection to government waste. Creating endless websites probably seemed high tech in 1997, but we should all be able to agree now that these things are a waste of time and money. How many children could possibly be visiting them?

Comments

[Tony Smith]

I do have to say... the first pic is pretty awesome. I'm sure it might make sense put into context, but by itself, it's cool. I want to make a t-shirt out if it.

I find it sad that the NSA is using the Crypto Kids site as a recruitment tool. Are kids of the age these characters are appealing to really interested in joining the NSA?
I didn't know that the NSA hired dogs... is that why our intelligence is so bad? Also, the squirell has a pet dog... I wonder how Decipher Dog feels about that?

Seriously, it is a waste of time, money, energy and bandwidth. Are there really people out there saying, "let's go to the kids site for the National Reconnaissance Office!!!"?

I gotta go... my cat is trying to fly to Venus!

[ann]

My personal favorite, the Energy Hog:

http://www.energyhog.org/