After 11 years, social workers to shed stereotypes in The Sims

If you’ve played The Sims, you probably have seen this scene before. This is the social worker. The social worker’s job is to prevent the player from killing children. In later editions of The Sims, social workers would remove children who were left home alone, or who performed badly in school. In some versions of the game, the social worker would ignore children with poor hygiene, but take away socially isolated and hungry children.

Social workers eventually became involved in the adoption process, instead of having your adopted child “teleport” out of nowhere. Still, the main role of the social worker is to remove children. This is aligned with the stereotype social workers have as malicious child-snatchers. The game does not go into detail over the family preservation model of child protective services. Social workers do not practice caseworker in The Sims. They do not have any other role other than to step in to remove children from the game instead of allowing them to die.

So, finally, there is an opportunity to change. Electronic Arts has asked the National Association of Social Workers for help, saying “We can use you guys as a resource.” It’s about time! And what better time for them to ask than during Social Work Month? A caveat: I have not extensively played The Sims 2 or The Sims 3. My understanding is that the differences are somewhat minor.

So, what’s wrong with social workers In The Sims?

1. They don’t get involved until it’s too late.
Struggling parents do not have any emergency resources to draw upon in The Sims. Instead, social workers in The Sims pop out of nowhere and take away kids who are “at-risk”. This is not the way child protective services usually work. Immediate removal happens when kids are at imminent risk. Physical abuse of children would qualify, but it’s not even possible in the game. Admittedly, it is possible to emotionally abuse or abandon children. Rather than split hairs, let’s get rid of the “immediate removal” mechanism, since it frustrates players and its implementation rarely matches the reality of child protective services. The game mechanics can be modified to prevent children from being abandoned. If the player chooses to go to work without someone to look after the children, they can automatically call a babysitter or a neighbor. Mis-clicks should not result in breaking up families.

2. They have only one tool in their toolbox - removal.
In most cases, rather than remove children, it is more likely that the social worker would put services into effect, such as family training, case management, or even emergency assistance. Why not implement an investigation and family assessment? It need not be particularly detailed (this is a video game), but it changes the tenor of the social workers involvement. The player will have to demonstrate an improved level of care and follow-up with the social worker.

3. They shame, rather than support parents.
If I recall correctly, in the original The Sims, a dialog box scolds you with a message along the lines of, “Your baby is crying! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” If NPCs (non-player characters) will be using that language, they should not be associated with social workers. The involvement of child protective services need not be seen as a positive event, but the relationship with the social worker should be positive.

4. The social worker is always a woman.
Maybe I’m over-sensitive to this as a male social worker, but it seems that at least occasionally you should see a male social worker.

5. The only role social workers play are in child protective services, or adoption.
If Electronic Arts is serious about improving the way social workers are portrayed in The Sims, they need not force the player to become exposed to a greater variety of social workers. Instead, allow players to pursue social work/social services as a career path, and learn more about the diversity of social work in that way.