Image


Emotional health and wellness games for teens, parents, and teachers.

►18th Annual Life.Love. Game Design Challenge -- Coming in February!◄

Time to Explain!, a puzzling award-winning time-shifting game about communication. Time to Explain!

falafelovore, France

Image
Communication Game
Open Worlds Play, an award-winning video game about the importance of social connectedness. And cats. Open Worlds Play

Sunny Chen, USA

Connectedness Game
New Sun, an award-winning video game about resilience. New Sun

Colmena Games, Colombia

Image Image
Resilience Game
MushWhom? A charming and challenging game of observation and deduction. MushWhom?

Collin Lang, Knitwit Studios, USA

Image Image
Critical Thinking Game
Figure it Sprout Educational Edition - a critical thinking game Figure it Sprout

Quang Nguyen, David Li, Gaby Sanchez, Kitty Huang

Image Image
Critical Thinking Game
One New Message One New Message

Eloise Best, England

Image Image
Resilience and Stress Management
UnEarth UnEarth

Robin Ghosh, Canada

Image
Communication & Conflict Resolution
Culture Overlord - what will you make Dan do today? Culture Overlord

Lucas Vially, France

Image Image
2022 Games for Change Awards Finalist
Lamplight Hollow - where do your dreams take you? Lamplight Hollow

Luciano Sgarbi, UK

2020 #JungleJam Winner!
Rispek Danis (The Respect Dance) Rispek Danis

World Vision Vanuatu & Jennifer Ann's Group

Image
2019 Games For Change Awards Finalist
ADRIFT: a family-friendly game about consent ADRIFT

Quinn Crossley and Andrew Connell, USA

Image Image
A family-friendly game about consent
Stuck in a Dark Place: A serious game consent Stuck in a Dark Place

Another Kind, Belgium

Image Image Image
A serious game about consent
HONEYMOON, a video game for young people about healthy dating relationships. HONEYMOON

Sandra Lara Castillo, England

Image Image Image
Healthy dating relationship game
Grace's Diary Grace's Diary

GPTouch, Thailand

Image Image
A resurrected Flash classic (2010)
Knowledge Can Be Your Bulletproof Vest, a flash game about teen dating violence. Knowledge Can Be Your Bulletproof Vest

Another Kind, Belgium

Image
Teen Dating Violence Classic (2010)
Untitled Bird Game, a flash game about teen dating violence. Untitled Bird Game

Jared Sain, USA

Image
Teen Dating Violence Classic (2009)
Escape Your Boyfriend's Room, a flash game about teen dating violence. Escape Your Boyfriend's Room

Goyco Games, USA

Image
Teen Dating Violence Classic (2008)

From the Gaming Against Violence program

Presented by

Image
As seen on Image

Keep in touch

Please enter your email address

Back to the games

Teen Dating Violence and video games

Teen dating violence is the physical, sexual, or psychological/emotional violence in a dating relationship. Although this problem is called "teen dating violence" our focus is not just on teenagers but also on tweens (11 and 12 year olds) as well as young adults in their early twenties (20 - 22). This form of relationship violence is distinguished from people who are married or generally have greater experience in dating relationships. This disinction is important because people with relatively little dating experience will have greater difficulty knowing if some aspects of a relationship are "normal" or not.


Although physical or sexual abuse in a dating relationship is fairly easy to define and identify, other forms of abuse like emotional or psychological abuse are not as easy to explain because they depend a great deal on context. This nuanced aspect of dating abuse is just one reason why it can be challenging to teach young people about what is - and what isn't - healthy or acceptable behavior in a relationship. The importance of nuance and context highlights the value of using an interactive medium, like digital games, for prevention.


The majority of the video games on JAGga.me focus on teen dating violence and are from the Gaming Against Violence program presented by Jennifer Ann's Group, the sponsor of JAGga.me. Gaming Against Violence produces an annual global game design competition, the Life.Love. Game Design Challenge, which has been rewarding video game developers for producing video games about teen dating violence since 2008.


Changing attitudes about teen dating violence and increasing awareness is critical to preventing future abuse. Teen dating violence has been shown to be linked to a number of unhealthy behaviors including:

  • Increased alcohol and drug use.

  • Four-to-six times more likely to become pregnant.

  • Greater chance of eating disorders, self harm, and suicidal ideation.

  • Dropping out of school.

  • Greater risk of being in an abusive relationship as an adult, contributing to the cycle of domestic violence.

Jennifer Ann's Group produces video games as an effective tool to prevent dating violence through awareness, education, and advocacy through its Gaming Against Violence program. To learn more about the history of Jennifer Ann's Group's and its other programs designed to prevent teen dating violence visit JenniferAnn.org.


Back to the games


Research on the Prevention of Teen Dating Violence through Video Games

Video games have been shown to be effective in changing attitudes about abusive behavior, increasing knowledge of dating violence, and increasing awareness of teen dating violence. "'It's like you're actually playing as yourself': Development and Preliminary evaluation of 'Green Acres High', a serious game-based primary intervention to combat adolescent dating violence" from CAVA shares their success in using a video game to change attitudes about abusive behavior in the UK, Sweden, Germany, and Belgium.


You can read more about Jennifer Ann's Group use of video games to prevent dating violence in the journal article written by Jennifer Ann's Group Executive Director "Gaming Against Violence: A Grassroots Approach to Teen Dating Violence" (subscription) in the August 2014 issue of Games for Health Journal.


Jennifer Ann's Group has also conducted its own research (2016) into the effectiveness of their games. Their findings show that the majority of participants showed a change in attitude about negative relationship beliefs in only 20 - 45 minutes. This research, 'Gaming Against Violence: An Exploratory Evaluation through Mechanical Turk of the Efficacy of Persuasive Digital Games in Improving Unhealthy Relationship Attitudes' was presented at Games and Learning Alliance (GALA) 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal. Please sign up to be notified of this and other items of interest regarding the efforts of Jennifer Ann's Group.


Back to the games
Logo for Jennifer Ann's Group, producer of video games to prevent teen dating violence.

Jennifer Ann's Group is a nonprofit public charity working to prevent teen dating violence through awareness, education, and advocacy. The Atlanta-based organization was created in 2006 in memory of Jennifer Ann Crecente, a high school senior who was killed by her ex-boyfriend.

Since 2008 Jennifer Ann's Group has run an annual competition, the Life.Love. Game Design Challenge, to challenge and reward video game developers for producing video games about teen dating violence.

To learn more about Jennifer Ann's Group's use of video games to prevent violence visit JenniferAnn.org.

Please share and follow Jennifer Ann's Group on Mastodon, Pinterest, and Facebook.


Back to the games

Privacy and Security Policy


This website is presented by Jennifer Ann's Group. Our privacy policy is clear:


We will collect no personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information to us.


Here is how we handle information about your visit to our website:


Internet Security Policy

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.


Information Collected and Stored Automatically

If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website, read pages, or download information, we will gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally.

We automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:

  1. 1. The Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a university's domain) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our website;
  2. 2. The type of browser and operating system used to access our site;
  3. 3. The date and time you access our site;
  4. 4. The pages you visit; and
  5. 5. If you linked to this website from another website, the address of the referring website.

We use this information to help us track the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology (e.g. web browser, device) our visitors use to ensure that we are providing useful and usable content. We do not track or record information about individuals and their visits.


If You Send Us Personal Information

If you choose to provide us with personal information by sending an e-mail to the organization, or by filling out a form with your personal information and submitting it through our website, we use that information to respond to your message and to help us provide you with the information that you have requested. The information you provide is not given to any other organizations or people. Jennifer Ann's Group does not collect or use information for commercial marketing.


Links to Other Sites

Our website has links to external websites. Once you link to another site, you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.


Back to the games

  • JAGga.me is presented by Jennifer Ann's Group as a portal for serious video games addressing serious emotional health and wellness issues affecting teenagers including teen dating violence and consent.
  • Content: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
  • Design: HTML5 UP & Jennifer Ann's Group
Advertisement