Online gaming is keeping teenagers from falling through the cracks.

 

“Strange times call for strange measures” Sitting in our living room playing PlayStation online with young people in theirs, is something we never imagined we’d be doing. But here we are in this unparalleled crisis of confinement in the parallel universe of online gaming, the final frontier of youth work outreach. A place where no youth worker has gone before.

For this youth worker who prides himself on his ability to work through face to face contact on the streets, in the stairwells and hidden spaces where young people congregate. This is truly an unprecedented experience, but also an opportunity to think outside of the box.  

So why online gaming?

Well why not? We are living through an emergency situation. We are asking our young people to stay at home, we want them to social distance and we also want to keep in touch, check in with them, keep our relationships with them and support them through this crisis. So we have to cut our cloth to measure. 

Previously our service discouraged young people from spending too much time gaming and now we are temporarily inadvertently encouraging them - picked up by a young person the other day when he said to me ‘you wouldn’t let us play Fortnite in the center but you’re playing with me now’. I remember when fortnite came out, the center numbers reduced for months, young people disappeared into the fortnite universe and when in, they were begging us to download the game or threatening not to come to their group. We resisted this vehemently, as we didn’t want them gaming online in the center, we wanted them to be present so we could work informally through their challenges. 

How to approach online gaming? 

Well we have a particular street work and outreach methodology that we use. So I approach online gaming the same way as I do outreach work. So i categorize young people into these sections.

1. Young people it’s nice to see

2. Young people it’s Important to see

3. Young people I need to see

So the 'nice to see kids' are the ones you aren't targeting but it's nice to see them. The 'important to see' ones are ones who you're concerned about, but you have regular contact with, and then the 'need to see' are the young people who are high priority 'most at risk' that you're particularly concerned about. The reason this methodology exists is because we can't work with everyone and helps you put a framework on what you're doing. So priorities are made based on my criteria of targeting, or other youth workers are picking up the others. So when I started nice to see young people would regularly invite me to play games though as we went along we learned to use invite only games and headset parties. 

Setting up your account?

Obviously get a PlayStation and headset, phone headphones with a microphone works good too, but need a proper headphone jack. Go to the PlayStation store, set up your account, credit card and username. Buy games and a monthly membership. Once you have all this you have to get young persons usernames.  

Getting usernames?

So I focus on finding out the usernames of the young people in categories ‘It’s important to see’ and ‘need to see’. I then target them for interactions through the games they play and through headsets. I chase up the usernames from them through social media.

Party Chats and Organising groups?

We invite them into ‘party chats’ on headsets on PlayStation and play games and have a chat. We also use the outreach principle of ‘their space not ours’, so we are more tolerant in how we respond to things they say in the chat, but take a note to respond later to more serious disclosures. We are also trying to be sensitive, because it can be intrusive and can be as weird for them, as it is for us to be in this space. So we are only coming into spaces we are invited into and we have permission from parents to play games online with their kids. Just be aware to make the parties private so no other young people can join in, so I tend to put my profile offline and make the chat private, arrange with the young people or parent in advance and then send them an invite. I also have some regular group times that I'm holding onto pre covid that are the same times for continuity with young people, so I set up at their existing times with them, other staff I work with do the same. 

What games do I use?

So far, Fortnite and FIFA 19/20 football games for us seem the most popular or acceptable to the young people. I run a weekly online FIFA 20 competition with one of my young men’s group and also play daily fortnite games with others. To be honest it was easy to organise the fifa tournaments with a pizza delivered to their home for the winner they were incentivized to participate. This is a long term existing group so it was good to get them together for this, as they have told me they really miss their space.

Do i play age appropriate games?

We only play games that are age appropriate to the young people we work with, mainly fortnite and FIFA football. Young people have asked us to play over 18 games and we have told them no. Though, this can limit options it's also important to keep that boundary, particularly because the games are so violent. We try to emphasise the point by not playing, so we won't be seen to condone playing such violent games.

Do i have Consent?

Yes, we developed a digital consent form for parents to fill in so we can engage with young people across all platforms of social media and gaming. Once we have explained to them what we are trying to achieve, they are generally happy that we are still connecting with their young person.

Guidelines 

The same approach to working with groups and one to one applies. Children first and child protection procedures, working in twos online. Also the ETB released a document for digital youth work which is very good ans informative, as It lays out best practice in the area and is a good template. 

Health warning for anyone contemplating working this way?

This work is exhausting and challenging. I generally spend about 2 hours playing at a time. One night playing a FIFA competition with 8 young was like having them in your brain. All shouting, all slagging each other and competing for space to talk. In the early days I was also in another chat that wasn't private and young people I didn't know came online and were slagging and threatening each other, it was a nightmare and so i left the chat with a banging headache as quickly as possible. 

Also to remember you are in their homes and them yours, so you hear stuff and they hear stuff that you normally wouldn’t hear. Parents shouting at kids, brothers and sisters fighting and everything else in-between, so be very clear with the parents about this and be open to the fact you may hear something that warrants a further intervention or they may hear you talking to your family if you leave the headset turned on. I haven’t heard anything other than sibling fights and kids getting called for dinner, but be we aware.

I wrote this document to be helpful and give my experience of an intervention that works for me, it may not work for everyone or your project might be nervous about it. I have had no major issues working this way, so I recommend it as a stopgap at this emergency time. I normally would never work like this, but as I mentioned earlier 'we cut our cloth to measure'.

To be clear, this is just one tool I use. I also use other technology based solutions like zoom and social media but this is the most effective

Thomas Mc Carthy 

Youth Worker