Meta says it’s probably alright for 10-year-olds to use VR headsets
Emphasis on "probably".
Children as young as 10 years old will soon be able to use the Meta Quest virtual reality (VR) headset. Meta wrote in a blog post that later this year, it will introduce parent-managed Meta accounts for the Meta Quest 2 and 3 for children between the ages of 10 and 12.
These accounts will allow parents to have control over the apps that their preteens download, and the Meta will only recommend age-appropriate apps. “We’re working closely with our developer community over the coming months to bring even more age-appropriate apps and games onto the Meta Quest Platform for this age group to learn from and engage with,” Meta wrote in the blog post.
These accounts will have a few standout features: parents will have to set up the account themselves, parents will be able to control what apps their child can download and use, parents can set time limits, and their accounts will be private by default, so people can’t follow preteen accounts, and only parents can change this setting. Meta also won’t show ads to preteens.
This addresses many issues with children using VR – some of the primary concerns noted by researchers are unwanted contact, oversharing personal information, overspending, and addiction to gaming. Yet this all hinges on the ability of parents to make appropriate decisions for their children. Because VR is still a relatively new platform, it’s unlikely that many parents are familiar enough to tweak the Quest’s settings to their liking.
All of Meta’s measures also do not address the potential for physical issues including eye strain and muscle strain, as well as its impact on cognitive, social and physical wellbeing in general. There isn’t enough research on VR and its impact on children, but a 2018 study by Stanford University and Common Sense Media considered how VR could affect child development.
“The truth is, when it comes to VR and kids, we just don’t know all that much,” Jeremy Bailenson, founder of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, wrote in the report. “As a community, we need more research to understand these effects.”
A few concerns arise: executive function skills, which include working memory, impulse control, and cognitive flexibility, are likely related to whether children can distinguish between real and virtual experiences. Executive function is tied to the development of the prefrontal cortex, which accelerates from age three until early adolescence (9-11 years old), and continues into the mid-20s. A study found that 5-year-old were as likely to follow the advice of a virtual character as that of a real person, while 7 to 9 year olds followed the advice of real people more often that virtual characters. “These differences in how interactive virtual characters are viewed could be related to an improvement in cognitive flexibility and working memory,” Bailenson adds.
Basically, the older they get, children are more likely to understand that while a virtual character is acting in a realistic way, the virtual character is not in the real, physical world. Yet the impact of VR is not all negative – because children form attachments to virtual characters, they can be taught to develop prosocial behaviors (at an appropriate age).
Put simply, there aren’t any clear answers or guidelines. While Meta is addressing many of the key concerns surrounding children’s presence in VR, there are plenty of questions that remain.
