The Christian Science Monitor

Stopping sexual assault: Students turn to video games to empower bystanders

What do these three actions have in common?

  • Starting a conversation about football.
  • Offering a friend a feminine hygiene product.
  • Responding to someone’s request for an “angel shot” at a bar.

They’re all ways that everyday people have intervened in situations that they worried could have led to a sexual assault.

The first one happened when a student noticed a man plying her friend with vodka; she started a conversation about the NFL, prompting the man to get bored and leave. In the second, a student offered a creative excuse so a friend could escape sexual pressure at a party.

More tech optionsStarting early 

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Monitor5 min readInternational Relations
In West Bank, Wave Of Settler Violence Creating Feel Of A War Zone
After years of scattered pinpoint attacks, Israeli settler violence this week enveloped the West Bank and struck larger communities. From Nablus to Jericho to Bethlehem to the edge of Ramallah, deadly attacks by far-right settlers hit towns and villa
The Christian Science Monitor6 min read
How Global Innovators Design A Sustainable Future
The sustainable village of the future, if Martina Wiedemar and Joao Almeida have any say about it, will have solar panels, earthen buildings, and an eco-friendly agroforest, a form of regenerative agriculture that mimics nature to produce climate-fri
The Christian Science Monitor2 min readWorld
Holy Days During Unholy Wars
Despite nearly seven months of war between Hamas and Israel, and lately attacks between Iran and Israel, both Jews and Muslims living in Israel have not forgotten their religious holidays – and the meaning attached to them by prayer and ritual. On M

Related Books & Audiobooks