There is a brilliant episode of Red Dwarf, the classic science fiction comedy of my youth, in which the characters play a virtual reality game that transports them to another world.
I was reminded of this recently when learning more about a highly effective and innovative way a creative arts company is teaching young people about the legal and potential lethal dangers of knife crime.
Although they existed, VR headsets were still very much a futuristic fantasy for Tyneside teenagers growing up in the 90s, unlike today when young gamers are used to completely immersive 3D experiences.
Read more: How the death of a County Durham teenager has shaped Labour's knife crime policy
This fascinating technology has been harnessed by Round Midnight to create a fictional live action universe for the 2020s featuring realistic characters and scenarios young people might find themselves in.
In order to enter this world I had to knock 30 years off my own body clock and go back to being a 16-year-old.
Reliving our adolescence is something most people would rather not do but the idea of being young again, with all of the experience of adulthood, has formed the basis of many a popular Hollywood movie.
Virtual Decisions: Knives is an immersive and interactive ‘choose your own path’ film based on a group of friends working out how to deal with a dangerous situation.
You wear headphones so all you can hear are the sounds around you in the film.
The characters look you in the eye and speak to you directly, asking questions and responding to your answers so you are fully invested and involved.
Before I entered their world the scene is set.
My long-term mate, Rhys, is having ongoing ‘beef’ with another lad, Jordan, which comes a head when he is filmed on mobile phones while being attacked.
The videos go viral on social media and everyone is taking a lend - dissin’ my boy - leaving Rhys feeling humiliated and angry.
So we meet in the park and Rhys comes along with Maisie, a sassy lass with a smart mouth who encourages him to lure Jordan down.
A gang of more sensible friends turn up and Zoe tells him to go home and that it is ‘not worth it’.
But then Maisie calls her cousin and her friend, Maya and Tia, who come with two intimidating older boys, Jay and Ty, and the element of peer pressure is palpable.
I made deliberately bad choices out of curiosity to see how the drama would unfold because in this world, there are no consequences.
And that is the beauty of the project.
In this world you can do it again and make different choices whereas in real life we do not have that luxury.
When the pathways of our decision-making are laid out so clearly to young people it can only make them stop and think.
Getting them to do this using a VR headset - a must have piece of tech for today’s teens - is a stroke of genius.
You can talk until you are blue in the face but making it interactive like this will surely resonate.
And once they have made bad choices in the VR world these memories remain and they can make the smarter moves in real life.
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The developers have been careful not in any way to glorify knife crime, there is no gore and there is no gaming element to it.
It is not computer generated but filmed with real people in a real park.
The experience is so lifelike with a talented group of young actors using language from the street you are fully invested in the compelling story and want to know more about these people.
They could be your friends.
Read next:
- First meeting of North East Knife Crime Taskforce in Durham
- Open letter to Prime Minister for action on knife crime
- Calls for knife crime to be on school curriculum
But then the police turn up and I am stopped and searched before I am arrested for possession of an offensive weapon.
This was just one possible outcome; it could have turned out so very differently, as so many people affected by knife crime know only too well.
The episode of Red Dwarf I mentioned earlier is called Better Than Life.
This powerful project helps young people appreciate there is no such thing.
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