Today there is a plethora of Internet sites aimed at young learners. In the following we comment on a website, National Graphic Kids, published by National Geographic as an example. However, due to copyright reasons, the figures used in the following derive from a similar Swedish website, Youngfacts. The interested reader is referred to the following link to get access to National Geographic Kids: https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/category/discover/. We will not go through all aspects of the model, but instead give some general comments on that type of learning resource.

Figure 12.1 gives an image of a common overall layout of such websites. At the general level, they typically invite the user to explore the content independently, by using links given through images combined with written words.

Fig. 12.1
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Screenshot 1 from website for young learners (UngaFakta 2020, printed with permission from UngaFakta)

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In both National Geographic Kids (NGK) and the Swedish example, the starting page contains links through images inviting the reader to explore a number of “facts” related to, for instance, themes as science and history. Examples from NGK are a cartoon-like image of a woman combined with “The life of Rosa Park” in words, and an image of viruses combined with “What is coronavirus?”. Through menus at the top of the page of NGK, the user can choose to focus on one theme at a time, in this case Animals, Science, History, and Geography. Here we note that Animals is a category separate from science, probably since visitors to the site may be expected to be especially interested in animals. Also, that page calls for some interactivity, with a quiz based on multiple-choice questions, though for the most part, links lead to informative sub-pages with texts to read, just like the Swedish website (e.g. Fig. 12.2).

Fig. 12.2
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Example of text provided behind links: Egypt of the Pharaos (UngaFakta 2020, printed with permission from UngaFakta)

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As regards interpersonal aspects, it is obvious that the site has two expected audiences: the curious child and an adult (teacher or parent). The voice is direct, addressing the child as “you”, and there is an extensive use of exclamations marks. Furthermore, facts are presented as “fun”, “cool”, or “amazing”, in ways that are not expected in traditional textbooks. Also, colloquial expressions such as “ready to blast off?”, or “this fab fruit?” (the tomato) are used, further enhancing the idea that learning is really fun. The images providing links are often based on indisputable facts rather than more complex problems, for instance “10 facts about…”. The general tone is that it is fun to learn: from their website young learners “discover some incredible secrets, awesome theories and explore some bonkers experiments”.

When clicking the links, the visual presentation of the texts is similar to that of textbook texts with images combined with writing (see Fig. 12.2). In NGK, the language style is a combination of colloquial expressions and specialized terminology, for instance in a text about the digestive system where expressions like “the chewed grub” are combined with “salivary glands” or “oesophagus” (https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/science/general-science/your-digestive-system/).

To sum up, such websites display a balancing act with a prospect to draw the child into traditional “school content” as something fun. This is done by the use of clickable images leading to “Facts about …”, often with photos and expressions displaying an overuse of exclamation marks and adjectives such as “awesome” and “exciting”, often in combination: “10 fabulous facts about Diwali!”. When clicking the links, a textbook like page appears presenting indisputable facts through the combination of colloquial style and a specialized language.