Code of Ethics for Virtual Reality
A guide for developers by developers
As more users adopt virtual reality technology, the potential risks to human well-being, privacy, and security becomes increasingly important. At the forefront of mitigating these risks are VR designers and developers who navigate the field using their own moral compasses.
In an exploratory study, developers expressed the need for standards and ethical guidance. In response, researchers led a co-design of a code of ethics together with VR developers. The researchers recommended initial guidelines which developers themselves expanded into the following code of ethics.
The Code of Ethics
Professionals involved in the development of VR experiences have the duty to:
Do no harm
Ensure that the intensity of the VR experience and its effects are appropriate by thorough testing. Avoid creating content that objectifies, demeans, or violates the rights of humans or animals.
Secure the experience
Use the best security protocols and protections to ensure that malicious actors cannot alter or harm users while they are in the VR experience.
Be transparent about data collection
Ensure that app privacy policies specifically mention VR data and how that data will be used, shared, and protected.
Ask for permission
Include permission requests for sensitive data such as eye-tracking, health, and other biometric information including movement-derived data.
Minimize nausea
Apply best practices to reduce nausea among users and test all products before releasing them to the general public.
Diversify representation
Provide a diverse set of avatars to users and ensure that representations of groups and characters do not perpetuate stereotypes.
Regulate social spaces
Prevent cyberbullying and sexual harassment and ensure inclusivity through community guidelines and privacy protections. Projects involving children or other vulnerable populations deserve special consideration.
Consider accessibility for all
Include options for those without standard vision, hearing, or movement to enable them to participate meaningfully in VR experiences. For example, allow users to integrate additional software or hardware as needed through modular design.
Innovate proactively
Seek out and implement new methods to enhance the immersive and seamless experience provided to users. Do not consider end-users as entirely separate; act in collaboration and symbiosis with them to achieve the best possible experience.
In a separate research, Gray and Chivukula identified three mediators or influences in ethical design practice: individual values, company policies, and the available information on applied ethics. This guide serves as the third.
For this code of ethics to be effective, designers and developers need to incorporate its spirit to their own personal standards and advocate for its dissemination within their companies. One concrete step is to discuss this code of ethics within your team and decide how you could apply it in your practice.
References:
Adams, Devon, et al. Ethics emerging: the story of privacy and security perceptions in virtual reality. Fourteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security. 2018.
Gray, Colin M., and Shruthi Sai Chivukula. Ethical Mediation in UX Practice. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2019.
