27.12.2018
- The campaign "Let's Play It Safe" will provide children and parents one place to learn about the benefits, and the risks of playing video games
- The security guide for video game play is accompanied by the first Croatian documentary about the impact of video games on the family
- Gaming is one of the most challenging topics for every parent of the 21st century: every fourth child in Croatia plays video games online, and more than 85% of video games contain violent content
Hrvatski Telekom, the leader of the digital transformation in Croatia, launches the "Let's Play It Safe" campaign, which aims to raise the level of information of young people and their parents about all the advantages and risks that are part of the world of video games. The campaign is part of a large social initiative “Share the positive, block the negative” aimed at increasing the safety of children and young people on the Internet.
Part of the campaign is the first digital security guide for video game play, which provides a full overview of the positive aspects, as well as the risks of playing video games with concrete advice for parents how to approach their children and protect them from the dangers of the virtual world. The guide was created in collaboration with experts from the Communication and Media Culture Association and Hrabri telefon, and its content is unique in Croatia. The guide will be available free of charge through channels of Hrabri telefon, Djeca medija, and portal Generacija Next.
The campaign was supported by Ivan Rado, known as the Malaysian Tapir, one of the most famous Croatian YouTubers, who talked from his own experience about the security challenges in video game playing. “Just as life gives us many challenges, there are some challenges that we have to overcome in the gaming world. I believe that understanding the positive and negative sides of video games, accepting the age limits on games and the parents accepting children in the world in which they did not live can overcome these challenges,” said Ivan Rado.
“There are many positive aspects of video game play, in certain people, they help with distraction, encourage problem-solving, develop intuition and hypothetical thinking, and are a great way to meet new people and make friendships. However, one needs to be careful because along with the positive sides, there are numerous risks such as addiction to video games, less physical activity due to excessive use and exposure to violence,” said Lana Ciboci, vice president of the Communication and Media Culture Association.
Part of the campaign is a short documentary about the impact of video games in the family environment, where gamers and parents together go through all the security challenges.
“Our experience of working with users through the phone line of Hrabri telefon points out to the importance of education for children and parents on gaming safety. Concrete figures and everyday experiences show that more and more children spend their free time playing video games and are often not aware of the challenges and dangers on the internet. It is especially important to educate parents as well who do not know how to approach a child and talk about proper behavior and recognizing risk when playing video games,” said Hana Hrpka, president of Hrabri telefon.
Data obtained through the EU Kids Online Croatia survey show that every fourth child in Croatia aged 9 to 17 is playing online games on a daily or almost daily basis, and 56% of them say that their parents always allow them to play games online with other people. Moreover, it is estimated that more than 85 percent of the video game market contains violent content, and parents and children are often unaware of the challenges on the Internet, especially in the field of video games.
“We live in a time when GenerationNext has the first contact with the video games at the age of two. Researches show that such experience of playing, on the one hand, develops skills such as faster perception, the speed of solving certain complex tasks, considering multiple options when solving problems, but also leads to deviations in behavior in some cases. The solution is not to prohibit playing, but to prevent dangers through parents' and children's education about the recommended playing time and video game content. With this campaign, we offer a tool how to deal with one of the biggest challenges for parents in history, at the time of the biggest generation gap,” said Nina Išek Međugorac, director of Hrvatski Telekom’s Corporate Communications Department.
Through the initiative “Share the positive, block the negative”, Hrvatski Telekom has provided Hrabri telefon with a new solution for a chat with users. Hrabri telefon has more and more queries and conversations with users through the chat platform. The new chat solution has been fully developed by the local IT company Seven IT and tailored it to the specific needs of Hrabri telefon.