Game on for ideas

Testing times at JCU

MANUNDA woman and single parent Sabrina Tooley has an idea to help kids and parents in Northern Australia struggling with gaming addictions.

She’s hoping a $10,000 JCU grant, available to anyone with a passion for solving health challenges, will take her idea to the international market.

The Digital Health Simulator, being run at JCU Cairns’ campus across three days from November 2, is a program open to anyone who has any solution to any health problem afflicting people in Northern Australia, and wishes to build, test and present that idea to innovation and health experts for a chance to win seed funding to bring it to market.

Ms Tooley, whose nineyear-old son, Reef, lives with multiple disabilities, has found online gaming has helped develop his social skills.

She wants to make online gaming a safer environment for children and their parents so they can reap the developmental benefits of gaming without the health and social consequences, such as online bullying, predation, addiction and morbidities associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

“We are never going to stop kids gaming, we just need to educate and empower a whole new generation of users, including parents and carers, to create healthier gaming experiences,” Ms Tooley said.

At the simulator, Ms Tooley will be testing an idea, which she calls the Safe Gaming Project, of plug-in software that will bump gamers into practising healthy habits as well as notifying parents when their child is making potentially harmful connections online.

“I’m really excited. I know I’m going to solve a global problem. Our kids need this.”

Health professionals both international and domestic have registered for the simulator. A JCU spokeswoman said there were still some positions open. Registration is free and can be completed via JCU’s website by searching JCU Impact 10X Digital Health. Registration closes Thursday, October 27.