A new video game for children’s rights!

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary and to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the IBCR is embarking on an innovative project: the creation of a video game to raise awareness among girls and boys in Canada and abroad about their universal and fundamental rights.

While it is recognized that young people manipulate new technologies early on and devote time and interest to them, there is no online tool dedicated to children’s rights in Quebec and Canada. In addition, the Convention and its articles are not well known to children and the general public. The IBCR therefore wished to remedy this situation and create a video game project for and with children.

Two primary school classes from Montreal’s Sainte-Cécile and Saint-Fabien schools chose to get involved in the creation of this video game, as well as students from Polytechnique Montréal and the École Nationale des Arts et Métiers (France).

Two days of meetings were initially organized to allow children to discover the Convention on the Rights of the Child through playful activities and to gather students’ ideas on the rights to be promoted in the game (right to education, right to health care, right to participation…). The students at Polytechnique Montréal were then able to propose different play concepts to the children.

In small groups and independently, the very enthusiastic children were thus led to reflect together on the different characteristics of the game and the concept they would like to see. This dynamic exchange allowed the four students from Polytechnique Montréal to take into account the students’ observations and remarks in order to create a relevant and adapted prototype. 

The children had a good imagination, we expected them to put a lot of fun into it but they were focused and very serious about the realization aspects of the game. They really put a lot of effort into their ideas, I wouldn’t have thought of all this when I was young!

The next step will be to develop a 3D game and have it tested by children, in order to finalize the video game and launch it on a national and global scale.