The RAYUELA project brings together experts from different areas of knowledge (such as Law Enforcement Agencies, social scientists, computer scientists and engineers, educators, lawyers, and ethicists) to develop novel methodologies that allow better understanding the drivers and human factors affecting certain ways of cyber-criminality especially relevant for minors. In particular, the project proposes using a serious game as such a new method to prevent, investigate, and mitigate cybercriminal behaviour. Thus, within the scope of the project an interactive story-like videogame has been developed with two main purposes: (1) Prevention: to allow minors to learn good practices online while playing, in a safe environment, without taking any risk; (2) Research: to analyse the data gathered through the game to identify risk factors, thus providing Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) with scientifically sound foundations to develop evidence-informed policies.
The final release of the RAYUELA videogame involves 6 cyber-adventures, which subtly address topics such as online grooming, cyberbullying, fake news, or technological threats like phishing, and is available in 13 different languages. The videogame has been tested by around 2000 minors all over Europe with positive feedback. The developed videogame has also proved to be an effective prevention tool, based on feedback from LEAs, educators, and NGOs, as well as a promising research tool, which has already provided interesting results and opens also new research venues. LEAs from all over the World, as well as European educational institutions and NGOs, have shown interest in using the videogame in their operational prevention and awareness campaigns. The project consortium has agreed to make the game available free of charge for non-commercial purposes under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 and to upload it to the Europol Tool Repository with the aim of having actually a positive impact on society.
