Binge Drinking Educational Game a Bad Idea
by Liam Bailey
2008-04-09 21:39:46 **opinion**
The University of West Scotland have developed a computer game, where the player controls a teenager, with the objective of finding his severely intoxicated friends, before the slip into a coma and bring the dreaded game over screen.
The game is due to be rolled out to all schools in the UK. The most surprising thing is the fact that the target age group for the game is 11-15. Education boards have slammed the game, saying it is wrong to inflict children just out of primary school with the idea that their friends could die from drinking too much.
That is the typical attitude with these matters, the fact is that up and down the country there will be 11-15 year olds getting hammered, maybe not many 11 year olds, but definitely a good few 12-15 year olds. I know because I was one of them when I was that age.
On the other hand I don't think the game is a good idea either. It is likely to cause more teenagers to start drinking than it is to stop them; if the game is "cool" then binge drinking will be cool as a result. If not cool then funny, if the game is a laugh then drinking will be a laugh. At the very least it will publicise binge drinking to all 11 year olds up and down the country, it will put it into classrooms in small villages, in front of children who mightn't otherwise have been faced by binge drinking.
