Using Digital Skills to Combat Radicalisation

On 22 August, the Tages-Anzeiger headlines ‘Switzerland has an above-average number of cases of radicalised young people’. Radicalisation and extremism are on the rise. There seems to be great concern among the population, as other media reports show. Schools and social workers in particular are alarmed, as young people are especially vulnerable to radicalisation processes. Digital spaces play a crucial role here.

This is precisely where our ‘Gaming against Extremism’ project comes in. Together with Stiftung Risiko-Dialog and the video game studio 5am Games, we are creating the serious online game ‘Radical Choices’ as part of the National Action Plan to Prevent and Counter Radicalisation and Violent Extremism (NAP) to strengthen the digital skills of young people. However, the project is primarily aimed at youth and social workers who would like to use the game in their work. All information on how you can become part of it can be found on our project website.

Click here for the project website

Challenges of Digital Opinion-Forming

Nowadays, information is not only obtained and opinions formed in person, but also in the digital space. Social platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram have intensified this dynamic, especially among young people. Although political actors are increasingly focussing on these platforms and using them themselves, the relevance of the gaming sector is often overlooked. This is fatal, as studies such as the collective publication "Gaming and Extremism. The Radicalisation of Digital Playgrounds", published in March 2024, clearly show that radicalisation is taking place in digital games. Well-known games such as Minecraft, but also games being developed by right-wing parties such as Patriot Peer or Heimat Defender, serve as a breeding ground for extremist ideologies.

The "Toolkit for digital skills" project was launched to counter this threat. The aim is to develop the game "Radical Choices" together with youth and social workers, but also with young people, that enables young people to playfully improve their digital skills and understand the mechanisms of radicalisation in an environment that is familiar to them.

A project website ("toolkit") will be created around the game, which will provide further content for youth workers (e.g. discussion guidelines, factsheets, etc.) and serve as a platform where further work, games, approaches to the prevention of extremism and radicalisation can be developed by other organisations.

Playful Education Against Extremism

"Radical Choices" offers a safe online space in which users can experience the dynamics of radicalisation for themselves and strengthen their own resilience. Youth workers accompany the game experience and can use the game as a basis for discussion with young people on the topic of radicalisation and extremism. They help the young people to analyse and reflect on the scenarios experienced in the game, which strengthens their resilience to extremist content.

The project is currently funded until the end of 2024. Our aim is to be able to continue the project beyond this period in order to further optimise the game and scale it more broadly, making it accessible to French-speaking Switzerland, among others.

Existing Games

1. Hidden Codes by the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank.
2. Leons Identität developed by the btf Game Department on behalf of the State Chancellery and the Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
3. Get Bad News by Tilt Studios.

The "Gaming Against Extremism" project is being developed as part of the National Action Plan to Prevent and Counter Radicalisation and Violent Extremism (NAP) and is funded by a large number of supporters: Palatin Foundation, Lucerne Lottery Fund, Swisslos Fund Basel-Stadt, Swisslos Canton Aargau, Canton Zug, Lottery Fund Zug, Swisslos Fund Canton Solothurn. We would like to thank all our supporters!

Extracts from the media:
Tagesschau from 30.6.2024, from minute 15:40
Tages-Anzeiger from 30 June 2024 (paywall)