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A new warning is out about virtual reality headsets and their potential dangers to teens and pre-teens who wear them. Research shows most parents aren’t aware that strangers can interact with their children who use this technology.
Virtual Reality involves strapping a headset to the face so the person wearing it can no longer see or hear the real world. This totally immersive experience can often feel more authentic than anything on a TV, laptop, or phone. Users often create an avatar, or character, that interacts with others, operated by people they often don’t know. These avatars can speak in a disguised voice, corner, and touch other players.
Meta is deeply involved in virtual reality, and two former employees, Cayce Savage and Jason Sattizahn, recently testified at a U.S. Senate hearing about the company’s research into the risks of this alternate reality.
“I quickly became aware that it is not uncommon for children in VR to experience bullying, sexual assault, to be solicited for nude photographs, sexual acts by pedophiles, and to be regularly exposed to mature content, like gambling and violence, and to participate in adult experiences like strip clubs and watching pornography with strangers,” Savage testified.
In an exchange with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sattizahn described shocking details.
“There will also be instances that we have seen where you can hear people sexually pleasuring themselves transmitted over audio in a spatial sense as you are being surrounded and brigaded and being harassed so it’s not just simple statements, it is actually the transmission of the motion and the audio of sex acts itself,” Sattizahn said.
“And so that is what causes children to have the physiological and psychological response as if it were happening to them in the real world?” asked Sen. Blackburn.
“Yes, exactly,” Sattizahn responded. “Visually and auditorily, it feels real.”
The whistleblowers accused Meta of suppressing studies into the extent to which VR can harm teenagers and even younger kids.
“When my colleague showed research of children being psychologically threatened by physical harm by strangers online,” Sattizahn said, “Meta not only restricted internal sharing, but manipulated reports showing any emotional damage.”
Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of Enough is Enough, a kids’ online safety organization, told CBN News that young people are especially vulnerable to the dangers of virtual reality.
“Their prefrontal cortexes of their brains are not fully developed yet. They’re immersed in this new world,” she said.
She advises parents to warn their children about this modern-day “stranger danger.”
“The thing is, you have to teach your kids that you cannot recognize a disguised predator. They pretend to be somebody that they’re not,” Hughes said.
She said technology companies need to implement safeguards, which is why Hughes supports the Kids Online Safety Act.
“It basically will hold these platforms accountable,” she said. “They have got to mitigate harm to kids.”
The bill is currently in the Senate. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said it’s facing tough opposition.
“Meta has hired armies of lawyers and lobbyists, spent millions of dollars, to kill the Online Safety Act,” he said. “It’s dangerous for their business model, even if their practices are dangerous to kids.”
The legislation would protect minors’ data, provide tools for parents and make it easier to report harm.
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