Feb 12


The NSA wants your children

by Terry 12 February 2006


The recruitment starts young. The NSA has a website targeted just to kids as young as grade school. In addition to code breaking games and puzzles, it also contains information on careers with the NSAA, “important links on the NSA website, including … declassified materials!” and activities from the NSA you can participate in as a high school or college student, including work study programs and scholarships.

From the text-only version of their site (I couldn’t cut and paste from the flash version):

Welcome to the NSA/CSS Kids’ page.
We’re the CryptoKids and we love cryptology.

What’s cryptology? Cryptology is making and breaking codes. It’s so cool. We make codes so we can send secret messages to our friends. And we try to figure out what other people are writing about by breaking their codes. It’s a lot of fun.

On this site, you can learn all about codes and ciphers, play lots of games and activities, and get to know each of us – Crypto Cat™, Decipher Dog™, Rosetta Stone, Slate, Joules, T.Top, and, of course, our leader CSS Sam.

You can also learn about the National Security Agency/Central Security Service – they’re America’s real codemakers and codebreakers. Our Nation’s leaders and warfighters count on the technology and information they get from NSA/CSS to get their jobs done. Without NSA/CSS, they wouldn’t be able to talk to one another without the bad guys listening and they wouldn’t be able to figure out what the bad guys were planning.

We hope you have lots of fun learning about cryptology and NSA/CSS. You might be part of the next generation of America’s codemakers and codebreakers.

This is just creepy.

Found via Digg and Prison Planet.

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5 Comments

5 Responses to “The NSA wants your children”

  1. decrepitoldfool on February 12th, 2006 11:06 am

    What’s creepy about it? The NSA is a lot more than just the current president’s misguided actions; they do very important work. Somewhere out there are kids with unusually high ability in math, languages, and logic, and who may want to serve their country.

    I would like to see the NSA insulated from idiot presidents, though.  (Quote)

  2. Terry on February 12th, 2006 2:57 pm

    I’d be equally creeped out by the military, FBI or CIA taking aim at grade school kids. But I agree – the NSA should be delinked from the current president.  (Quote)

  3. ClipperZ on April 21st, 2006 9:29 am
  4. Nobody, right? on May 6th, 2006 1:29 pm

    Yes, it can be a bit creepy when someone who’s working for the government is taking an interest in your 12 year-old daughter, but still, it’s an honor to be considered having a high enough aptitude for the aforementioned skills needed to works with the NSA/  (Quote)

  5. Cool on April 9th, 2007 1:42 am

    Honestly I think that there’s nothing “creepy” about this as it’s a good place for activities for kids. Come on, how many of us – as we were growing up – didn’t enjoy secret codes? They used to put in “coding toys” and “decoders” in cereal boxes when I was growing up, and today kids still love having invisible ink. They love cracking a code, and anything that helps them think logically has to be good. Besides, how many kids even have an inkling what a career is, at that stage of their lives? I’m sure it’s just all games to them.  (Quote)

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