Playing 4 Keeps - United States

This youth media project relies on entertainment-based technology to educate youth about human rights. The process is informed by the GK educational pedagogy, as the game will be developed by youth and for youth to appeal to their peers who might not otherwise get engaged in rights-related educational material.

To carry out the project, a team of 7 young people began gathering in a New School University computer lab to create a test summer gaming programme. This pilot role-playing game about discrimination against teenagers is called "A Day in the Life of Zit Guy". The game takes players through a scenario in which a teenager on a hunt for "zit" (acne) cream experiences various forms of rights violations on the part of adults who, for example, accuse him of stealing. Communication strategies, such as talking the matter out with a store manager, are modelled.

A polished version of that game will be built in conjunction with the online game developer gameLab. GK will draw on gameLab's relationship with existing gaming portals in an attempt to bring the game to a larger public audience by finding a high-profile for the game online. A guide will be developed by GK for educators and community-based organisations to foster the game's incorporation into existing programmes and to offer tools to help young people develop follow-up social action campaigns.

Rights, Technology.

GK hopes that the first Playing 4 Keeps game will be oone of many - the beginning of a larger movement in which young people no longer just play games, but create them as well.

Global Kids is an educational organisation dedicated to supporting urban youth's development as community leaders and global citizens. GK seeks to improve the content by and for youth online by translating youth development and global education strategies to the Internet, giving youth a safe place to have fun, interact with peers, learn about key domestic and global issues, and create strategies that address them.