What the metaverse and extended reality will mean for children

The Metaverse is on the horizon. 

End Violence
Vitalii, an 18-year-old college student and Upgrade team member from Ternopil in VR glasses.
UNICEF/UN0678719/Filippov
07 August 2023
Reading time: 3 minutes

The Metaverse is on the horizon. 

In essence, this virtual world will be an “extension of reality” in which people may be able to do much of what they do in the real world through an integrated network of virtual environments. That, alongside other developments in extended reality (XR) are drastically changing the way technology will intersect with our lives. 

As with any new tech, this is ushering in a host of opportunities, including for children and young people. But it also means new challenges – those that need to be addressed through new and evolved solutions. 

UNICEF Innocenti - Office of Global Insight & Policy has published a new report that provides a rapid analysis of the positive and negative effects that virtual environments could have on children. It traces the growing advancements in XR technology, the potential effects as well as the governance and regulation. 

ENHANCED EXPERIENCES, BUT COMPLEX RISKS 

The Metaverse and extended reality will influence many aspects of children and young people’s lives:
Education could be more immersive. Children could learn in an engaging way by traveling virtually or reliving historical events.  
Creative ways of play will be enhanced through world-building in virtual environments.
Mental health support could be strengthened. XR technologies help children learn how to manage symptoms such as anxiety in a safe, simulated environment. 

But there is the flipside of new, complex risks, those that we risk not knowing much about.  

The report highlights threats of exposure to graphic sexual content, bullying, hate speech sexual harassment and abuse, all of which can feel more “real” in immersive virtual environments. 

Researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate spent 12 hours in a popular VR social platform. They found that users, including children, were being exposed to abusive behaviour. There was graphic sexual content; bullying, harassment and abuse of other users, including minors. Concerningly, there were also instances of minors being groomed to repeat racist slurs and extremist talking points. 

New forms of cyberbullying may emerge. The report gives examples such as bullying online avatars throwing virtual objects at other avatars. Virtual environments raise the need for behavioural moderation, not just content moderation, which will be challenging to implement.

Similar to some existing platforms today, such as social media, the metaverse might not have the tools to prevent children from entering environments that are not designed for them. Age restrictions may be hard to verify and be easily bypassed by tech savvy children. Experts worry that people seeking to harm children online – for example, through sexual harassment or grooming for sexual abuse – will capitalise on this.  

There is also risk to children’s information security, such as through virtual identity theft. Risks such as virtual identity theft and misuse (leading to fraud and cybercrime), can be amplified in virtual environments.

And it may have concerning effects on cognitive development. As virtual reality becomes more realistic and immersive, the line between virtual and real could be even harder for children to grasp, impacting children's understanding of reality or result in a fractured view of reality. Research has shown that XR alters perception of time spent and this could lead to excessive use, hampering children’s well-being. 

STRENGTHENING SYSTEMS TO RESPOND TO TECH ADVANCEMENTS 

Extended reality and the dawn of the Metaverse provides a new, complex and immersive experience, and it is crucial that the safety concerns are proactively addressed. Steps need to be taken immediately to stay ahead of the curve. 

The report makes recommendations for governments and policymakers to make sure that this new space is safe and regulated. It suggests steps such as undertaking a review of how metaverse-related technologies might function to identify emerging opportunities and risks for children, assessing how existing regulatory frameworks fare and what needs updating, and setting up an expert advisory board. 

The report makes a second set of recommendations for the tech industry, especially for applying child-friendly design principles, age verification, easy ways of reporting issues and high data protection standards. 

Read the full report by UNICEF Innocenti here. 

The Safe Online initiative has been investing in building capacities, systems and technology solutions to tackle online harm to children, generate knowledge and evidence on what works, and advocate for policies and regulations to make the internet safe for children. It is enabling cutting-edge solutions to address threats of violence online so that  children can thrive in a safer online world. 

Safe Online has now announced a new $ 10 million Global Open Call for Proposals to help prevent online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). This funding round will continue laying the groundwork for a safe internet in line with the latest data, evidence, technology and frameworks addressing digital harms to children. Learn more about the call and keeping children #SafeOnline - visit SafeOnline.global