GUARDIAN: protect someone else
GUARDIAN is the final module of TRUST // NO TRUST: a free 15-minute test for teenagers aged 14 to 18 that measures your digital resilience in eight areas, from phishing to knowing where to report. You get your own radar and the two areas to work on next. Then you become a Digital Guardian: you choose a mission and take what you learned to your class, your family or your community.
- About 15 minutes
- 24 situations, 8 areas
- Your own radar and badge
- 4 community missions
About GUARDIAN: from knowing what to do to protecting others
GUARDIAN is a free interactive module created by Nicholas Carstoiu (Nicholas Cârstoiu) as Module 06, the final module of TRUST // NO TRUST, a digital resilience platform for teenagers. It turns what you learned in the first five modules into two things: a measurement of your own digital resilience, and concrete action in your community.
What does the Guardian test measure?
Eight areas of the Community Digital Resilience Score (CDRS): phishing, online scams, manipulation, deepfakes and AI, grooming red flags, cyberbullying response, keeping evidence and where to report. There are three situations per area, 24 in total. Each area gets a score from 0 to 100 and the overall score is their average. The result shows which topics to practise next. It is a learning tool, not an exam and not a validated psychological assessment, and no score can guarantee that someone will recognise every threat.
What are the community missions?
Four ready-to-run activities that a Digital Guardian can organise with a teacher, the family or a local partner: a 45-minute class hour, a 30-minute family evening about voice-clone scams, a five-day school awareness week and a 60-minute session with a library, a EUROPE DIRECT centre, a youth organisation or a middle school. Each one has a goal, steps, questions for discussion and a report sheet that records only numbers, never names.
How will the school reports work?
In phase 2, after the Lider European 2026 competition, the school pilot switches on the full CDRS: students take the same test before the modules, right after and four to six weeks later. Each student sees a personal report; the teacher sees only an anonymous class report, from at least ten students. Three demo reports with fictional data show the format, and each one can be downloaded as a PDF.
Quick answers
How can a student teach classmates about online safety?
Ask your form teacher for one lesson and a projector, play SURVIVE together so the class votes on every answer, then solve HUNT in small groups and end with three questions: what almost fooled you, what did the scammer use, and what will you do differently. Count the hands before and after for “I know who to call”.
How do I protect my grandparents from voice-clone scams?
Play them a fake voice message, explain that a few seconds of a voice from online videos are enough to clone it, agree on a family code word face to face and save 112, 1911 and the bank’s number in their phones. If a call sounds like you and asks for money, they hang up and call you back on the number they know.
Who made GUARDIAN?
GUARDIAN was created by Nicholas Carstoiu and is developed with the TRUST // NO TRUST team from the Romanian-Finnish High School in Bucharest: Ana Marinescu (concept validation, testing and UX), Nil Gonencer (marketing and communication) and Eva Obretin (design and translation), coordinated by Prof. Gabriela-Amalia Grigore.
GUARDIAN brings together SURVIVE, a simulated week online, HUNT, an online scam investigation, TRAP, on spotting manipulation and the loverboy method, REAL / FAKE / AI, on telling real images from AI fakes and HELP, on what to do and who to call in Romania.
Questions and answers
Is this the CDRS?
It uses the same eight areas and the same 24 questions. Here the result is only yours, on your own device. In phase 2, the school pilot uses this test three times and produces an anonymous class report.
Is my result saved or sent anywhere?
Only your best score stays in your own browser, so you can compare next time. Nothing is sent to a server, there are no accounts, and the badge is drawn and saved on your own device.
Can a teacher use GUARDIAN in class?
Yes. The class hour mission is a ready-to-run 45-minute plan for a form-tutor or social science lesson, using SURVIVE and HUNT. No accounts and no student data are needed.
Are the school reports real?
Not yet. The three reports show the phase 2 format with fictional data, behind a demo code. The first real measurement takes place in the school pilot, after the competition.
