2024 - a device to help children

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In the video game, a character rescued children victims of abuse for several weeks. A device launched by the association L'Enfant bleu, to listen and help the youngest.

During the confinement period, the famous online game "Fornite" created a character to discreetly help abused or suffering children, so that they can confide in an adult.

This secret experiment launched by the association L’Enfant bleu, aims to become a lasting device, in order to provide support to children and raise awareness. To reach the youngest, the association is interested in a new way to get in touch with them, without them having to call on the phone. “Young people do not use the same media as we adults. We have to adapt and find new ways to get in touch with them ”, says Laura Morin, director of the association. To help the children, the association’s volunteers entered the virtual world of video games under the cover of a character called "Blue Child". They then took turns to make him "live" for almost a month, every day until 10:30 pm.

"An encouraging track"

This avatar made it possible to collect the testimonies of nearly 1,200 children and adolescents, from 10 to 17 years old. According to figures, the majority of children would have clicked on the avatar out of curiosity but 30% of them “Confided in more or less serious personal problems”, and “Some have reported being in an extremely urgent situation", Indicates the association. The volunteers were then able to redirect the children to more specialized structures.

To make the experience work better, the association chose not to promote this device to the media, so that parents, potentially abusive, are not warned. They therefore preferred to appeal to "gamer" influencers known in the video game world. "This is the right channel, the right vocabulary so that we can be clearly understood by the children who need it, without drawing the attention of those who mistreat them", summarizes Fabrice Plazolles, of the communications agency Havas Sports & Entertainment, who piloted the operation.

This device proved to be conclusive, suggesting that video games are a "Encouraging track" to give voice to child victims of abuse. To provide more solutions, the Blue Child association has chosen to bring together several representatives of video game publishers, magistrates and specialized police officers, as well as the State Secretariat for Child Protection, from September 2020 .