Systematic Mapping of Cybersecurity Awareness Content in Digital Educational Games for Children

Children's growing engagement with online platforms has heightened their exposure to cybersecurity threats, while existing educational interventions often provide incomplete or uneven training. Digital games are increasingly viewed as promising tools for early cybersecurity education, but no standardized framework currently exists to assess the breadth and depth of their content. This paper addresses this gap by systematically mapping the cybersecurity awareness domains embedded in digital games designed for children aged 8-12 years, guided by questions on which domains are covered and how comprehensively they are addressed. A novel childcentered evaluation framework, aligned with cognitive developmental theory, was developed and applied to analyze 20 publicly available English-language games. Content analysis was conducted across six awareness categories: Technological, Procedural, Data Protection, Online Identity, Social/Cultural, and Consumer Awareness, with scoring performed by dual raters and reliability confirmed through inter-rater analysis. The findings reveal a clear imbalance in content coverage. Procedural and Social/Cultural Awareness were consistently emphasized, while Consumer Awareness was almost absent, and Data Protection and Online Identity showed persistent weaknesses. These disparities leave children insufficiently prepared for online risks such as scams, identity theft, and privacy violations. The study contributes a validated evaluation rubric, a systematic mapping of current games, and recommendations for more comprehensive cybersecurity education design.