The Ethics of VR : Inside a Child’s Virtual World — Part II
Children’s Media Conference, 2017
As part of the VR thread at CMC 2017, we hosted 3 conversations around VR + children. A panel discussion on The Ethics of VR for kids was a lively conversation between Dr. Dylan Yamada-Rice, Mark Goodchild and Mark Mon-Williams — hosted by Stuart Dredge.
Age Concerns around Children & Virtual Reality
Marc Goodchild brought a broadcaster point of view to the discussion, mentioning that CNN has been experimenting with 360 video, that Turner are looking at VR for kids and there is, undoubtedly a huge opportunity, but for us to proceed with caution, noting that, in some instances devices distract from, rather than encourage interaction. Turner are taking baby-steps with I See Ooo, a VR story taken from their Adventure Island series that uses entry level cardboard headsets for age 7+.
Marc stated, “we want to understand where kids entertainment goes, in terms of aesthetic. Hyper-realism isn’t so important in VR but the duration and appropriateness of game sessions is and needs to be validated. It’s also important to define where VR experiences for children should go, rather than throwing it all out there and then trying to make up the rules later.”
Questions were raised about the quality of VR content for children. There isn’t a lot of great content for kids right now, so how can we create suitable and responsible content when headset manufacturers have set restrictive age limits and are focused solely on the adult user.
Addiction, Duration & Onboarding
From the broadcaster perspective, it’s naturally about immersion and engagement with their brands, but it seems that existing VR IP is a construct of TV — made for television; so how can we allow kids more engagement and immersion in the storyworld through a VR experience? Looking at Adventure Time’s ‘I See Ooo’, there are structural design boundaries that force children to ‘take a break’ after 10 minutes of play in order to help kids decide when to stop. Adding to that, with cardboard headsets there are natural constraints, because you have to hold your hands up to hold the headset, (although Dylan mentioned that kids are resourceful and she’s seen children standing close to a wall and jamming the headset onto the wall to save their aching arms), and therefore it is important to teach children to self-regulate the amount of time they spend in virtual environments, which has already been shown to work for children consuming stories and entertainment through tablets.
Duration management applies to different devices; from the weight of an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, coupled with the restrictive tethering of wires, to ‘arm fatigue’ of holding a light cardboard headset to your face. So what devices are appropriate for kids? Strapped-in devices allow freedom of body movement and calibration, but children should be taught how to remove the headset and control their experience.
Moderator Stuart Dredge raised the issue of addiction to Virtual Reality, asking whether kids want to spend a long time in there. “Even with YouTube they (kids) move away, so how big really is the issue of addiction and immersion to Virtual Reality?” Dr. Dylan Yamada-Rice reminded us that, as adults we have a responsibility to talk to children about our intentions and manage their expectations regarding digital content and devices in order to onboard them safely by explaining what they should do if they feel sick or don’t like the experience. Marc added that onboarding is a first-time user experience and he found that parents were managing the initial set up and then handing the headsets over to the kids. This means the experience had already been calibrated as if the child is adult-sized and taller — which immediately causes a disconnect for the child. Dylan added that an explanation is key, “We’re going to give you a headset, you’ll feel as if you’re in a cartoon. You might even feel dizzy but if you do, the headset can be taken of. You can take it off at any time and if you don’t like it, close your eyes and remove it.” It’s evident that walking helping children into aadjust to VR experience is paramount.
Marc mentioned that it’s an editorial choice, that we are in early days of development in VR so the decision to build time-out into the structure is a necessary and cautionary one. Mark Mon-Williams added that placing bigger and heavier headsets on children also requires consideration of the human factors relevant to children. “There is a rush to hardware domination but fundamental questions about the human user aren’t being addressed up-front for kids”. He went on to mention the obesity and diabetes epidemic and how VR could be used to encourage non-sedentary behavior and the possibilities of using this technology ‘for good’.
From a human-behaviour perspective, he iterated that humans are predisposed to circumvent systems if they don’t work for us — for example, the average child will find a way to strap or jam a headset to their face!
This ongoing issue of design mechanisms to prevent or manage the duration of play remain key to the ongoing conversation.
This is Part II in a series that covers the Virtual Reality Thread, Exec Produced and curated by storycentral for Children’s Media Conference, Sheffield — July 2017.
Part I can be found here.. https://medium.com/@storycentral/the-ethics-of-vr-inside-a-childs-virtual-world-f49493971d2c
Part III can be found here.. https://medium.com/@storycentral/the-ethics-of-vr-inside-a-childs-virtual-world-part-iii-ab8145b5bcc
