A website co-created by The Australian ¾«¶«´«Ã½app University (ANU) and the Youth Coalition of the ACT to help prevent gambling harm in young people has won a .
offers practical tools to help young people and families understand gambling harm and reduce their risk. It was recognised in the Social Impact category, one year after it .
The website was created in response to growing concern about young people's exposure to gambling through online betting, sport and video games.
It is the first co-designed digital hub of its kind in Australia, filling a gap in publicly accessible gambling harm resources made with and for young people.
Associate Professor Aino Suomi, Director of the ANU Centre for Gambling Research, said the award was especially meaningful because young people shaped Fair Play from the beginning.
"We didn't want to build a resource for young people based on what adults thought they needed," said Associate Professor Suomi.
"We wanted young people to tell us what they were seeing, what mattered to them and what would actually speak to them. They are the experts in their own digital worlds. If we want gambling harm prevention to work, we need to listen to them and respect that expertise."
More than 50 young people, parents, carers and other stakeholders helped shape the site, from the topics covered to its language, format and tone.
The Good Design Awards jury praised the project's "methodologically rigorous co-design process", particularly the team's decision to seek a mid-project ethics amendment so 12-year-olds could take part. This helped ensure "the youngest voices were genuinely represented rather than designing about them from a distance".
The jury also highlighted a key insight from the co-design process: young people don't identify with the word 'gambling' broadly, meaning resources based on conventional assumptions "would fail before launch".
Thomas Stevens, who led the design of Fair Play at the Youth Coalition of the ACT, said this was one of the clearest messages young people gave the team.
"When gambling comes packaged as a loot box or as part of watching the footy, it's no surprise young people don't always think of it as gambling," said Mr Stevens.
"We used the language young people actually use, rather than expecting them to recognise themselves in adult terminology."
Fair Play offers tailored information for different stages of childhood and young adulthood, with resources for parents and carers of children aged 5 to 11, young people aged 12 to 18, and young adults aged 18 to 25.
The site includes eight practical tools requested by participants in the co-design workshops. These include Check Your Game, which helps parents spot gambling-like features in popular video games, as well as a conversation guide, spending calculator, quick self-check, and information on reducing risk and blocking or self-excluding from gambling services.
Associate Professor Suomi said the award demonstrated the value of research translation and creating something people can use.
"Producing the evidence is only one part of our job," she said. "If that evidence stays in academic papers, it's unlikely to reach the children, families and communities who could benefit from it.
"Fair Play shows what can happen when researchers, community organisations and the people we're trying to reach work together from the outset. Good design can turn evidence into something people can actually use."
Mr Stevens said the project showed what is possible when research evidence is combined with the expertise of young people and the wider community.
"This award really belongs to the young people, parents and community members who helped build Fair Play. They showed us what changes when young people help design something from the start, and we'd love to see more gambling harm work done the same way," he said.
Fair Play was designed by Thomas Stevens, Associate Professor Aino Suomi and Dr Debbie Noble-Carr, with teams at ANU, including PhD candidate Hunter Culbong, and the Youth Coalition of the ACT. It was commissioned by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission and funded through the ACT Government's Gambling Harm Prevention and Mitigation Fund.
The award will be presented at the ceremony at ICC Sydney on Friday 9 October.
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