A pioneering computer game designed to help students identify online grooming tactics is being developed for classroom use in Irish schools, with plans for implementation this September when the new school term begins.
The educational tool, created under the Grosafe project—a collaboration between the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and Technological University Dublin with funding from Research Ireland—has already undergone successful trials in select schools.
Fiona Jennings, ISPCC Head of Policy and Public Affairs, explained that the initiative specifically targets “how children and young people are groomed into criminality or for sexual exploitation purposes.” The game is being aligned with Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum outcomes for post-primary schools and will be offered free of charge to educational institutions.
“We have done brilliant school trials and co-created it with children and young people and they have been really receptive to that in terms of sharing their thoughts and ideas with us of how to create it,” Jennings said. The development process, which began in June 2023, has heavily incorporated student input to ensure the game resonates with its target audience.
The finished product will include both a reporting mechanism and chatbot function to enhance its interactive educational value. Additionally, developers are creating a knowledge management system that Jennings describes as “really, really crucial” for practitioners who “struggle to identify what grooming behaviour looks like and if they do identify it, they don’t know what to do with that.”
This system will allow frontline workers to document examples of grooming behavior, helping to build a comprehensive national picture of grooming patterns in Ireland—similar to the DRIVE project established through drugs taskforces and the Health Research Board.
Jennings emphasized that education remains essential for protection, noting that “children learn well through gaming, including really complex ideas.” She also highlighted how the approach addresses current gaps in safety education: “For years, our Stay Safe programmes in schools have all been about stranger danger whereas we know now that children and young people are more than likely to be abused by someone they know within their own community.”
The final enhancements to the digital game are scheduled for completion by September, in time for implementation in the 2025-2026 school year.