The Bridge

Disrupting the potential link between excessive online gaming and gambling harm.

In 2020 and 2021 Kids Thrive is running a unique project working with pre-adolescent kids to raise awareness about the addictive nature of gaming and the potential links to gambling harm. Here is a sneak peek at our new creative resource kit, The Bridge, that will soon be freely available to schools.

‘We found that the loot boxes in almost half (45%) of the 22 games we analysed met the criteria to be considered psychologically similar to gambling, even though they are rated as appropriate for adolescent players under the age of consent for gambling.’

The Conversation, June 28, 2018

The project is the latest in our ten-year legacy of working with children aged 0-12 and empowering them to take positive action in their communities.

International research shows that kids as young as nine are already gambling and links with this behaviour and excessive online gaming have been found. The Bridge seeks to disrupt this link in pre-adolescent children.

The project brings together Kids Thrive artists and students from Altona North Primary School to co-create a series of prevention and early intervention learning resources. These online resources will help children to identify risk behaviours and develop self-control strategies to ensure protection from future gambling harm. Further creative education tools will also be developed for use by teachers and community educators.

The National Health Service, UK, has confirmed the opening of a new treatment centre, alongside up to 14 new NHS gambling clinics nationwide, to address significant mental ill health linked to addiction. January 2020

Funding for the The Bridge project was granted from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation (VRGF) through the Prevention Partnerships Program, which aims to mitigate gambling harm through a range of community education and prevention programs; and Creative Victoria through the Creative Learning Partnerships Program (CLPP), which aims to partner schools with artists to deliver creative learning projects.