#Chances4Children: NSPCC launches new random nickname generator tool to protect children’s identity

The automated tool aims to safeguard vulnerable young people’s anonymity and speeds up the process when signing up for its Childline services.

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Nicknames are created when the child first signs up to Childline and appear in one-to-one chats, message boards and image galleries across Childline’s online services. Previously, 60 per cent of the names generated by children were rejected which the organisation say left children feeling confused and reluctant to access the service.

“Children want the opportunity to personalise their accounts, but this puts them at risk of giving away personal information when accessing our confidential services,” said Samantha

Keith, head of digital production at NSPCC.

“Automated generation provides a light-hearted, easy way to create a Childline account and access our online services, while reducing the amount of time our staff spend on moderation.”

Digital transformation agency Kin + Carta Connect designed the tool which generates names from word lists including an adjective, verb, a wild animal and a random four-digit number, such as MarvellousYawningPlatypus1234.

An option to later amend the nickname is also available in the Childline Locker.

“We needed to be mindful of the fact we are assigning an identity to a vulnerable child,” said James Fox, experience director at Kin + Carta Connect.“Our research showed that users can have strong associations with colour relating to context, personality or identity.

“We didn’t want to create a solution where we trigger an emotional response between colour and gender for an LGBTQ+ user, for instance. Similarly, we considered use cases for neurodivergent children, like a preference or aversion of specific colours for children with autism spectrum disorder. Our aim was to ensure we avoided situations where colour association could affect a child completing the sign-up journey and create a barrier to access.”

In addition, Title-case or UpperCamelCase text has been used, optimising the experience for screen reader technology and ensuring the nicknames are accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

The tool was introduced after more than 140,000 new Childline accounts were set up in 2019 while the number of children accessing Childline spiked during the first national lockdown.

Eloise Maslewski, group account director at Kin + Carta Connect, added: “Our remit was two-fold: first, to reduce the time taken by NSPCC teams to process the moderation, but just as importantly, we were tasked with creating an inclusive user experience that would make the Childline services easier to navigate and open to as many children as possible.”