A new study of what families think about virtual reality (VR) technologies reveals that parents want more research-based information on how VR technologies may influence brain and behavioral development. Families also placed a higher value on VR features that increase physical activity, compared to features such as educational content.
"We know that families have concerns about whether it is appropriate for children and teenagers to use VR technologies, but there has been little research done on how families prioritize those concerns or how they can be addressed," says Qiao Jin, first author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of computer science at North Carolina State University. "That's what we were setting out to explore with this work."
For the study, researchers began by analyzing interview data from 67 children and 55 adult guardians. The interview process explored issues related to the many factors that come into play regarding how families make decisions about VR use, as well as who families feel should be responsible for addressing family concerns about VR use.
The researchers then compiled those interview responses and convened a focus group of 84 children and 40 guardians, asking them to rank the responses from each category: what information was most important, what sort of content is most appealing to families, and so on.
One key finding was that families wanted more information regarding brain and behavioral development. Families felt these things were foundational concerns that could influence a range of other issues, such as a child's ability to learn and form relationships with peers.
"Rather than treating brain and behavior separately, participants often discussed them as deeply interconnected, affecting everything from learning to relationships to happiness," Jin says. "Study participants felt a better understanding of how VR may affect the brain and behavior also informed their understanding of VR's influence on screen time and usage frequency at a deeper level. This was particularly important because many guardians in the study expressed significant concerns about the addictive properties of this technology."
Families also said it was important to have safety controls to detect potential bullying or harassment on VR platforms in order to protect children, rather than relying solely on parental oversight over inappropriate content.
"Children desire autonomy and independence, and parents respect that - but still worry about their children's safety," Jin says.
One surprising finding was that families prioritized physical activity over other features with regard to what makes a VR platform more attractive
"Guardians were most concerned about ensuring children were healthy and active," says Jin. "The ability to interact with family and friends online was considered appealing, as was educational content, but neither of those features was deemed as important as physical activity."
Family views on who should be responsible for addressing VR concerns were more complicated.
"Families felt the tech companies that create VR platforms have a responsibility to the public but expressed some skepticism about whether those companies would prioritize the well-being of children over profits," says Jin. "Instead, study participants envisioned a model of governance where industry would build VR platforms; university research would evaluate those platforms and study how VR affects children; and public institutions - including doctors, teachers and other domain experts - would use that information to make evidence-based decisions designed to guide the use of VR platforms and protect kids.
"One clear take-away from this work is that more needs to be done to deepen our understanding of how VR use may affect brain and behavioral development in children, so that we can share this information with parents and families," says Jin. "This, in turn, should inform the types of research that we prioritize and fund in regard to VR."
The paper, "'We Care More About What It Does': Priorities and Responsibilities in VR for Children and Families," will be presented at the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), being held March 21-25 in Daegu, South Korea. The paper was co-authored by Xiaoran Yang, a Ph.D. student student at NC State; and by Svetlana Yarosh, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Minnesota. This work is part of a consortium, funded by an unrestricted gift from Reality Lab Research, to develop ethical guidelines for research with children involving VR and other XR technologies.
