There are various games and well-intentioned campaigns about drug education and subversive crime to educate children. Martha de Jonge of the Trimbos Institute investigates the sense and nonsense of government campaigns for prevention.
This is also the case with the Dutch government campaign with a tripping cow and parrot for children in group 8: a game to discourage ecstasy use in children at an early age. De Jonge: “This game will not cause children to use ecstasy less. “Children that age are naturally against drugs and crime. So you can't make them more anti than they already are. What you can do is stimulate interest in the subject.”
Wrong signal
The police are taking the game, which has cost tens of thousands of euros, offline after questions from EenVandaag. “In hindsight, we do not support the choice for this game,” says a spokesperson. “We hope that the game has not had the opposite effect on children. Given the new insights from the researchers, we have decided to take the game offline.”
According to several people in addiction care, there is often not enough thought about the effect it has on the young target group. Fear is often played on in the commercials and games. “By saying yes once, you can never get out again!”, is often the message. “That is not the right message,” says researcher De Jonge.
“What message are you sending with that? Especially to someone who may have already said yes once. Then you actually tell such a boy that he can no longer get out of crime and so it makes no sense to do your best because you are already in crime anyway. You really don't want that.”
Say no to drugs and subversion
The researchers therefore have a lot of criticism of games and other communication tools that the government uses to combat crime, but that does not mean that games cannot work properly. “You just have to think carefully about how you use them,” says de Jonge. “What works, for example, is when you offer action perspectives. That you don't just tell that you don't drugs should use, but that you also explain how to say no.”
“The same goes for when someone asks you to commit a crime. Tell a criminal you don't want that. But if you give children the tools to do that, it becomes easier to say no.”
Drug addicts younger than ever
It is good to start prevention at a young age because more and more young people are involved in drug crime and subversion at a very young age. end up. More than 2023 haulers were arrested in the port of Rotterdam in the first half of 200. Of these, 63% were under 23 years old. In 2022 this was 45%. Actual minors are about 15%. Where in other years most ejectors were between 23 and 28 years old, they are now often between 18 and 22 years old.
Source: eenvandaag.avrotros.nl (NEITHER)
