How do you educate teenagers about the dangers of drinking and taking drugs in a way they actually engage with? ABC News addressed this issue earlier this year.

Griffith University has initiated a project called ‘Blurred Lines’ that allows students to virtually attend a party and decide how many drinks they will have. A trial has begun in Queensland and the game, called ‘Perfect Pour’, will be rolled out to 20 independent Catholic schools across the state.

Griffith University researcher Timo Dietrich witnessed the first trial at St Mary’s Catholic College in Cairns. He said, ‘There’s a bunch of kids wearing our world’s first virtual reality masks and they’re actually experiencing a virtual reality house party’. Students can decide how many drinks to consume and their virtual self can become appropriately intoxicated.

The purpose of the virtual reality game is to teach teenagers about responsible drinking and drug taking without them experiencing the negative consequences. The trials will test whether this game has its intended long-term impact on the participating students. ‘If we can get them to learn how to say no or decline a drink, that’s what I really want out of this,’ Dietrich said. If the students drink too much at the pre-meeting, their virtual character will pass out and they won’t be able to attend the party at all. The significance of this project, and its ramifications for future educational possibilities, cannot be understated. ‘Virtual Reality gives us a tremendous opportunity to really take education to a whole new level,’ Dietrich said.

You can read more about the project by following the link below or by liking their Facebook page, ‘blurredmindsaus’.

http://blurredminds.com.au/about/

 Image source: Blurred Minds Facebook page (screenshot of game).