Play it Safe: Teenage Pregnancy Project for the NHS South East - Page 2 of 7

Subject Matter

The focus of the CD-ROM is to demonstrate to young men the risks regarding teenage pregnancy as well as the dangers involved in having unprotected sex. It was decided that the best way to do this was to split the CD-ROM into two distinct sections. One section is purely factual (which I will address later in the report) and the other creates a game/scenario that illustrates key aspects of a story about a relationship between a young man and a young girl.

'Play it Safe' and is an interactive animation/movie conveying a non-linear narrative. The non-linear nature of the story makes the presentation an exploration of the parallel universes surrounding our two characters. It is hoped that by seeing what happens when they make a particular choice in the virtual world, the young men will be made more aware about the consequences of their actions in the real world.

The story begins with a boy meets girl scenario. Our two characters are then put into a predicament which decides if they are going to have sex or not via a wheel of fortune (spin the bottle) affair. This element was added on recommendation by the panel of sexual health workers as it was pointed out that there was a vast leap from the boy and girl's initial meeting to them having sex (which was deemed too presumptuous and did not allow for the probability of abstinence taking place in the encounter.)