A serious game-based solution to prevent bullying

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a Serious Game with the main purpose of inducing attitude changes as a way to prevent bullying. The target audience are young people between 10 and 12 years old. The rationale for prevention is: first, to help victims of these aggressive episodes to improve behavioral competence to avoid or to deal with future real bullying situations; and, second, to promote in the bystanders empathy towards the victims.

The user studies we have performed lead us to the conclusion that the current solution has potential in bullying prevention while being a therapy auxiliary tool. The Serious Game was appreciated by young people who, after playing the game in a continuous time span, reportedly acquired bullying prevention strategies.

The BackOffice application, a distinctive feature of our solution when compared to other similar solutions, was also evaluated, and was positively assessed by the psychologists who tried it.

References

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Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Law, social and behavioral sciences