In a new podcast to mark National Anti-Bullying Week, the University of Warwick’s Professor Dieter Wolke discusses how computer games can help victims to fight back.

Professor Wolke, based at the University of Warwick’s Medical School and Department of Psychology, has just published a research paper on the effects of using virtual reality games to help children escape victimisation and bullying at school.

The study, published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, looked at how 1,100 schoolchildren reacted to anti- bullying software.

The software showed 3D pupils assuming the roles that children take when bullying occurs, either as the bully, victim or bystander. These characters were then used to improvise real-life bullying incidents and pupils could interact with the characters and suggest ways to cope with or resolve the situation. Professor Wolke found the software significantly increased the probability of victims escaping victimisation.

Professor Wolke has also published many research papers on the psychological effects of bullying on children. In the podcast he discusses what kind of children become victims, the long-term effects of bullying and how children who are bullied at home by older brothers and sisters can often become victims at school as well.

Professor Wolke’s podcast

Notes to editors

If you would like to arrange an interview with Professor Wolke, please contact Kelly Parkes-Harrison, University of Warwick, k.e.parkes@warwick.ac.uk, 02476 150483/07824 540863