Antonio Hoogervorst

Inspiring the Next Generation of Digital Heroes

The core message of this session was that children aged seven to twelve can be made safer, more confident, and more interested in future digital careers when cybersecurity and digital literacy are taught through playful, talent-inclusive experiences. Hamid Abedini introduced AVIT Group as an IT and cybersecurity specialist in the Netherlands and explained why the company supports Hackshield, a nonprofit foundation that creates a game for children to learn digital literacy and cybersecurity. He connected the initiative to a specific workforce challenge in the Netherlands: while the country currently has around 700 digital professionals, developments around AI and cybersecurity mean that by 2030 the market expects around 100,000 missing talents needed to support society’s digital future. For Hamid, reaching children early is therefore both a safety issue and a future career issue. Antonio Hoogervorst then explained how Hackshield’s School of the Future is designed around children’s own views of their digital future: what excites them, what worries them, and how their perspectives can inform public and political conversations. Rather than predicting a fixed future for children, Hackshield wants them to experience different possibilities themselves. The concept emphasizes that digital products are not only built by programmers or highly technical children; different talents can contribute. This idea is embodied in three houses: Explorers for curious children who ask questions and discover how things work, Custodes for those who want to protect people, nature, or technology, and Ingenia for creative children who like designing and building things. The speakers then walked through the design of the new zone. Hackshield uses a 10-20-70 structure: the first 10% introduces the topic and problem through storytelling or playable levels, the next 20% deepens immersion, and the final 70% supports free exploration, play, and learning. The zone includes interactive environments, friendly drones, AI teachers, and AI kids, because the team believes children cannot start soon enough in learning what AI is and what it can do. The same topic is also delivered through a Class Quest: a lesson on a digital board with story, questions, energizers, and mini games, while the zone supports individual play at home with higher entertainment value. Playing the Class Quest can unlock codes, quests, levels, and avatar cosmetics in the zone. The session also described how Hackshield connects the School of the Future to the Media Masters program during the Dutch digital literacy week in early November. One quest asks children to explore digital roles while investigating why a school data fountain is covered in bugs, using activities such as drone scanning, clearing bugs like a programmer, and building a firewall. Antonio explained that the design is anchored in SLO learning goals, with each zone covering a maximum of three goals and using pre- and post-assessments woven into gameplay rather than presented as separate tests. Near the end, the speakers staged a ceremonial launch of the new future career zone with representatives from Digital Talent Nederland and the police cybercrime department, framing the launch as a step toward greater impact.