The impact of a ground-breaking prosocial anti-violence computer game developed for young people was the highlight of the recent policy forum hosted by the None In Three (Ni3) Global Research Centre.
West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin and Stand Up to Domestic Abuse founder and campaigner Rachel Williams were among those who contributed to the event in late March.
Titled 'Keeping young people safe', it was attended by around 100 delegates from the education, policy, charitable and policing sectors and considered some of the issues around safeguarding young people and how best to prevent violence developing in their intimate relationships.
The UK Ni3's game, called 'Danielle', follows on from previous games developed specifically for young people in India, Jamaica and Uganda. The empirical research on which the game was based and its development by Ni3's in-house team were discussed in depth at the forum, alongside footage from the now freely available game.
West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin addressed the opening of the forum
"This is the first time we have had this immersive medium where young people can become characters in a game, which is where in-depth feeling, understanding, and learning comes from. It has been incredibly exciting to launch it," says Gillian Kirkman, UK Country Director of Ni3 and Subject Leader in Social Work.
"The forum gave us an opportunity to celebrate our work over the last few years by showing educators and those involved in safeguarding and empowering children, how the game, alongside a curriculum, could really help young people to learn. It can stimulate debate on current ideas, and challenge their own perceptions about what an intimate healthy relationship looks like.
"An Ofsted review of sexual abuse in schools in 2021 reported that young people were crying out for authentic, relational sex education to help them navigate the multi-layered nature of their intimate relationships, and to be able to recognise harmful behaviours. Our intervention fits that request perfectly."
Guest speaker Dr Kristina Massey from Canterbury Christchurch University, highlighted the importance of such necessary education when she shared her research findings on the impact of pornography on young people's intimate relationships. She demonstrated the serious and negative impact that pornography has on their attitudes and behaviours, encouraging male entitlement and violence and female submissiveness.
Dr Kristina Massey spoke to the forum about how so many young people are being influenced by pornography
"Kristina's presentation highlighted the negative consequences of young people using pornography as a sex education tool and championed the need for effective interventions, such as ours," Gillian adds. "Our computer game and curriculum enables young people to experience, through playing the chapters, the subtle build-up of violence and abuse and witness its impact on the characters. The curriculum then promotes through debate, activities, drama, and discussion more knowledge and understanding about their dating relationships, and the importance for instance of respect, equality and consent.
"We were also very fortunate to welcome Metro mayor Tracy Brabin to open our event. She has been an enthusiastic supporter of None in Three whilst in her Mayoral role and visited our research centre recently. Tracy wholeheartedly supports our aim to prevent violence towards woman and girls as their safety and wellbeing is at the heart of her three-year strategy."
After four years in development, 'Danielle' was trialled across seven schools late in 2021. Ni3 Centre Director Dr Nadia Wager and Research Assistant Sam Mason walked delegates at the online forum through findings following data analysis from the randomised, controlled trials, while Gillian confirms that the findings underlined what young people and teachers told her about the game.
"Young people's experiences of playing 'Danielle' were recorded and played at the event. Hearing from some of the young people who have played the game was a high point of the forum. It has had a sustained effect on them, while their suggestions for future games on similar, serious topics were very welcome.
An image from 'Danielle', the prosocial game for the UK from the None in Three centre "When asked by a teacher how the game compared to current PSHE teaching, young people told us that they are usually given a case study on paper, a typical scenario was often considered too easy as it was clear immediately what was 'right' and what was 'wrong behaviour'. They felt there was no real deep learning or debate to be had and didn't mirror real life teenage situations .
"The game allowed them to see, step by step, how abuse develops, moving them away from the 'why does someone stay in that kind of relationship?' rhetoric. They were able to recognise how such behaviours could make others feel, including peers. Playing the characters enabled young people to see and feel how unhealthy relationships can build from love-bombing, to possessiveness, jealousy, violence, and sexual coercion.
"The game enabled young people to decide how the characters would respond, and what they would say to a number of situations. Depending on their route within the game, they would find themselves in one of four possible epilogues, two positive, two that are not. Again, this teaches and demonstrates the impact of certain attitudes and behaviours and opens the pathway for learning.
"It allows educators or teachers to open up the curriculum resource and ask questions, like 'could friends have intervened?', 'why is he/she behaving like that?' The curriculum enables discussion on same sex relationships, the impact of religion and culture, gender stereotyping etc. It poses questions rather than simply suggesting how young people should behave which I think is a positive thing.
How the latest None In Three game was developed
"Teachers involved in the game trials also spoke at the forum about their experiences, their observations when watching young people play the game, and discussed their thoughts about its future role within curricula. They encouraged other schools, colleges, youth groups and organisations to download the free resources and enable young people to immerse themselves in the content. Too many young people are experiencing unhealthy, abusive, intimate relationships and we need to prevent this, and keep them safe.
"It's been a phenomenal four years, with a pandemic to navigate too, and we could not have accomplished what we have in the final stages of our research without young people and educators. We are tremendously grateful.
"Although this is the end of the four-year project on the UK, the work of Ni3 continues, we are actively working on other research bids so we can trial the game this time with the curriculum, and we want to build more prosocial games for the UK tackling the issues young people face."
The Ni3 website includes a host of resources for professionals interested in gender-based violence. The computer game and curriculum are free and downloadable, alongside presentations and recordings from the event.
