Video Game That Teaches Girls to Resist Peer Pressure about Sex

Charles Hughes and Anne Norris, professors of respectively computer science and nursing at the University of Central Florida, are developing a video game. This game will teach middle school-age Latinas to resist peer pressure to have sex:

“Our ultimate goal is to reduce pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease among the young Latina population,” Norris said.

The schoolgirls will interact with realistic computer-generated characters that speak and respond to them in real-life scenarios. To make the game as realistic as possible, the avatars are controlled by the actions of a skilled “interactor” using motion-capture technology. The interactor remains hidden, often in a remote location, during game play.

Norris cites many reasons for focusing on young Latina adolescents, age 12-15. Low-income Latinas have higher teen birth rates and higher rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases than their white peers. The best time to teach girls abstinence and peer-resistance skills is during middle school — those approaches are less effective once girls become sexually active. And many Latina girls may lack role models who can help them learn how to resist peer pressure.


Link via Kotaku | Photo: UCF Today

Comments (0)

One of the Uncle Johns Bathroom Readers I just got has
an almost exact story. The guy there was mere minutes away from pulling it off. He pulled the tape away that was covering a little peep hole. Delivery guy just happened to look that way and saw his eyeball. GGGGGG

Gotta give them both an award for chutzpah if nothing else. GGGG

Some people pull similar ideas on boxes that are going to be sent by air. They don't realize the cargo holds aren't pressurized. What a horrible way to go.

Finally, I read of some guy that stowed away on an airliner in the wheel well for the nose wheel. Can't remember if he lived.
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Usually wheel well travelers don't make it, but I suppose it's possible in the way maybe one out of a hundred Golden Gate jumpers makes it.

Anyway, about the box guy: it just feels good when somebody pulls a caper, even if they're bad folks. Like the people that robbed Harry Winston's. Heists!
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