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Many students at Hanson Middle School said they knew first hand what it felt like to be bullied. That experience helped them come up with ideas to promote a program that educates students about cyber bullying.
The students joined teens from Bridgewater-Raynham in a joint imitative with LiveWires Design LTD to launch “Braincells”—an innovative computer game that educates students about cyber bullies. The computer game is an animated program set in Braincells High, a fictitious school that is in chaos. The main character of the game, Eddie the Bully, steals cell phones from younger students. He hacks into the school computer and changes his marks. He continues to turn students against each other by initiating a series of cyber bullying incidents. In the last level, Get Eddie, players bring peace to the school. The game is designed to educate students in three areas: hacking, bullying and cyber bullying. Hanson students were asked to come up with positive ways to respond to cyber bullying. The middle schoolers recognized that at Braincells High there were no repercussions to the negative behavior Eddie was involved in. Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said the game aims to teach kids how to protect themselves from online bullying. “We’re trying to teach the kids how to protect themselves from online bullying,” Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz said. “We are trying to keep up with the technology. Most kids now have cell phones that have access to the Internet on them. The goal is to prevent cyber bullying and cyber hacking.” LiveWires Design President Drew Ann Wake provoked responses from the students by having them place themselves in the scenario. They were given time to work in class to create positive alternatives to respond to bullying. Student Brendan Hayward had the most creative comeback to a bully: “Try doing that from a jail cell.” The students also developed a skit to promote the lessons taught in the game. Hayward and his group came up with a dialogue based on a real life scenario in which he witnessed glue being thrown in a girl’s hair during art class, he said. “We’re putting it down from a personal experience,” he said. His group won the promo contest and their skit will be featured on the game’s Web site, livewwwires.com and also on YouTube.com. The teen’s skits showed that bullying does have consequences. “Computer games often glorify bullies. This game does the reverse,” Wake said. “It shows how students can act together to bring an end to bullying.” The hacking portion of the game was tested with students in Canada. The bullying part was tested with students from the Netherlands, and the cyber bullying was tested by students from Plymouth and Bristol counties. ‘“Braincells’ not only teaches children appropriate behavior, but it also helps them recognize unsafe behavior,” Cruz said. Cruz, District Attorney Sam Sutter, Raynham Police Chief Lou Pacheco and Wake announced the launch at Bridgewater-Raynahm High School on Thursday. “Braincells” is the fourth game that has been tested in Plymouth and Bristol counties. Hanson DARE Officer Rick Nawazelski said Hanson was chosen to test the games because the community has a good relationship with the District Attorney’s office and because the middle school offered access to one of their four computer labs. “They’ve played [‘Braincells’] before and had a good time with it,” Nawazelski. In class, Nawazelski said his students also play “Missing,” a multimedia computer game designed for middle school students ages 11 to 15. “Missing” was created for kids to learn the importance of Internet safety. “Missing” has been brought to students in Massachusetts free of charge by Cruz, The Entertainment Software Association Foundation to Web Wise Kids, Live Wires Design LTD. and The High Tech Crime Consortium. The schools involved in the testing are able to access the game as often as they like. As part of the collaboration, the game will be available to educate students in both counties free of charge for one year. “Braincells” will be available to other Massachusetts schools in March, then will move to California and to the rest of the United States.
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