Search anything

Close search
Embassy of Safety

(Archive) Mes Less

Prevention of knife violence with the help of Virtual Reality

This project was part of DDW 2022
Enliven

Mes Less has been developed for and with young people for the purpose of preventing and reducing the carrying of stabbing weapons and stabbing weapon incidents. Mes Less is a program that can be offered in secondary schools

What do you choose?

With Mes Less we want to make young people aware of the risks and consequences that carrying and using a knife can have. In VR, young people experience a challenging, but recognizable situation in which they can choose from a number of strategies. They then experience the consequences of the choice they make in the VR experience. On the basis of this, the young people discuss knife violence with each other and the supervisors. Together the young people think about their own choices and the associated consequences. As a result, young people become aware of the risks of carrying knives, think about alternatives and consider who they can approach in a difficult situation for them.

The approach

Mes Less approach came about through a mix of Design Thinking and Intervention Mapping. That is, it is based on 1) proven effective behavior change strategies and 2) insights about the target group and the context in which the problem occurs. Mes Less has been developed iteratively and in co-creation with the target group. It has been developed with and tested on students aged 10-16. An older target group was also asked to contribute ideas. The group had experience with the law and knife violence, and in retrospect they were able to argue well about what had and hadn't helped them when they were the age of the intended target group. In this way, the target group contributed ideas and cooperated in drawing up the learning objectives, the scenarios, the dialogues and the look 'n feel of the animations.

The power of Virtual Reality

Research shows that simulations are a good way to get young people to talk and think about social issues, such as knife violence. By means of virtual reality powerful simulations can be created in which the viewer is visually completely isolated from the physical environment in which they are actually located. Because in this way there is no longer any visual input from outside, unlike when, for example, a flat image is viewed, the viewer can be transported to the virtual environment. Research shows that this way the brain can treat the virtual experience as psychologically real. This gives the viewer the feeling of actually being present in the experience. In this way social situations can be imitated with the help of VR, in which young people have the feeling that they are actually present in the situation, so that 'real' reactions can also be evoked. This allows young people to experience the consequences of certain choices in those situations in a very realistic way. This helps the young people to at least 'think twice' if they find themselves in such a situation.

Andere deelnemers

Embassy of Safety

Previous Next

Andere deelnemers

Embassy of Safety