From Tony Blair’s house to George W Bush’s pet cow, governmental web sites offer children insight into the inner workings of the world’s leaders.

This week saw the launch of a new website designed to help children understand Downing Street’s purpose and history. 10 Downing Street offers children easy to understand explanations about the Prime Minister’s role in politics, the history of the famous building, historical Prime Ministers and important topics in the current government. Thing is, though it’s brightly coloured with simple iconography, it’s dull. For the generation who have already grown up with CBeebies, for whom the “red button” is de rigeur, and who will consider Comment is Free old hat, this site has no interactivity what-so-ever. Want to chat to ask the Prime Minister a question? Well get yourself an email address first, oh and by the way “he’s a very busy man” so may not reply.

Whitehousekids, on the other hand, is far superior, although less brightly coloured. Highlights include the Barney Cam (video clips of the president’s dog), a biography of Ofelia, the president’s cow, and quizzes about First Lady and presidential factoids, as well as giving children a guide of the US capital.

Not far away, the Central Intelligence Agency is also aiming to get ‘em young. Ginger’s CIA Adventure follows a cuddly blue teddy bear as she sneaks around all the places in the CIA that little teddy bears are not allowed, yet fantastically does not cause a security breach alarm. The Code Warriors game gives children the chance to use symbols to crack codes. And, Geography Trivia lets kids test their knowledge about geography around the world.

The Mexican government takes a slightly more serious approach. It’s web site designed with young ones in mind contains explanations of the country’s constitution, format of government and territory and details Mexico’s guaranteed human rights–all done in jazzy fiesta colours, with not a quiz in sight.

And if that’s not enough to keep your child from thinking that all it takes to be a world leader or CIA agent is a shiny black door, a dog/teddy bear and a few lines from constitution then the United Nation’s website will put them straight. Cyberschoolbus is a great resource for children to understand many complex global issues such as hunger and disease using fun and informative games as one way to get this message across. Food Force exposes children with the problem of supplying food to a town in crisis. Players have to create a balanced and inexpensive diet plan, guide a convoy of trucks into the crisis area, air drop food packages and, finally, distribute the food aid to the residents. The site also has several quiz games to help children learn facts about populations and water scarcity.

These sites can offer great opportunites for children to begin to understand the intricacies of government and inspire them to become involved as adults. Unfortunately, many of the children’s sites governments do offer are blandly informative or merely attempt to entertain or are simply nonexistent. As children become more involved with new media technology, governments should take more initiative to include these future leaders of the world.