Hi!
www.videogames.org.au is managed by the Institute of Games. We’re a social enterprise that studies technology and its impacts on people. We share our learnings by creating resources and delivering training and workshops.
We believe that education is the main solution to staying safe and healthy in games. If we train our children to recognize the risks and the dangers and teach them ways to mitigate or avoid these risks, they will feel empowered to make the right decisions.
We’re working to make www.videogames.org.au a resource rich website for gamers, their parents, teachers and professionals working with young people.
We use the opportunities of gaming and we deal with the risks.
Who we are
We’re parents probably just like you.
We get excited by the opportunities of new technologies. But we’re also worried about the impact of all this technology use is having on our kids.
As professionals working with children and young people we started reading research on the impacts of gaming and sharing what we knew. We’ve done so for the past 15 years. In that time we have also learned a lot from parents.
We believe that parents are the only experts when it comes to their children. We can only provide them with information and ideas. It is you who is best placed to put these into practice with your own kids.
About Steven Dupon
Steven Dupon is founder and director of The Institute of Games and manages this website.
Steven has over 20 years of experience working with children and young people. He focuses on developing and empowering them to be the best they can be.
Steven grew up in Belgium and moved to Australia in his mid twenties. He has a Bachelor in Psychology and Diploma of Business.
Steven has worked with at risk young people at St Vincent de Paul, Wesley Mission and VZW Openluchtopvoeding. He also worked for government building and supporting the service system that provide support to young people.
From 2009 to 2018 Steven worked for the YMCA, first as Manager of the Manningham Youth Services and in 2014 he was promoted to National Coordinator of Youth Empowerment.
For the last 10 years Steven has specialised in the impact of technology on children and build the Institute of Games and Videogames.org.au to raise awareness, educate and support families on the impact of video games.
Since 2018 Steven has set up a Game Development Studio to create Social Impact Games. These are games that achieve a positive outcome in the world. Using game design to achieve positive results! Check out Streets of My Town to see the award winning game in action.
Find out more about Steven Dupon on LinkedIn.
over 200,000 people
have used our resources
over 50 organisations
have partnered with us
over 5,000 people
have attended our workshops
Evidence base
Over the past decade we have collected academic research on the topic of gaming and it’s impact on children and young people. We’ve studied it and applied our knowledge in our work with young people. Over the years we’ve learned a lot about gaming and how families deal with it.
We study the available research, talk to parents and young people ourselves and from this knowledge and experience create resources that are user friendly and based on the available evidence.
We work closely with universities on the work we do, particularly when we run projects on specific aspects of gaming. For example our current project on gambling in video games is informed by academics and we actively reach out and collaborate with researchers in this field to ensure our work is evidence based.
We are currently compiling on a complete reference list for those who wish to take up their own study.
Please contact us if you need any help in finding relevant research on gaming.