Students from De Montfort University, Leicester (DMU) and Leicestershire Police have designed two mobile apps to help educate children about crime.
One of the apps is aimed at children aged up to 11 and the other at up to 17.
As part of their final year project, computer science student Zeynep Kandirmaz and computer games programming student Sophie Ellis worked with the police force to design an educational tool to inform children about crime and victim rights in an engaging and interactive way.
Users are able to play games with a storyline and answer scenario based questions, and both apps use interactive characters.
DMU said it is hoped the app will be rolled out more widely across the UK.
Storyline concept
Kandirmaz, who worked on the app for secondary school children, said: “I started out by writing a storyline as the main concept for the app and updated the police at each stage to make sure they were happy with it. It’s for a great purpose and I wanted to make it as interactive and as engaging as possible.
“My app works using a map guide with a story to follow, after each victim right is explained in the storyline a question pops up and students have to submit an answer before they can move on to the next part of the story.”
Detective Chief Inspector Helen Fletcher said: "Young people need to know their rights as a victim of crime and how the victim’s code relates to them. This can be a difficult message to convey but this app really brings it to life in a way that young people can understand and fully engage with.”
