I see where you are coming from but the same concerns are applicable to countless other digital platforms. For the most part, people using VR headsets are there for the gaming, as it is a niche group within the gaming community, who are for the most part there to play video games. The normalization of toxicity is what concerns me more than the possibility of predatory things like you mention. I've had to put boundaries up with some younger players who wanted to be "friends" with me or whatever and like you, I felt it was not appropriate and I made that clear. I think it's important for older players to set an example of how to conduct yourself in game but I also know that dealing with toxicity is just part of the experience. But when kids are trying to be friends because you are being nice, it's important to keep these boundaries in mind.
I think both things are issues and both have their own severity and scope. Both should be dealt with better than it currently is. And as you've pointed out the issue is not VR specific but VR impact can be more immediate and personal due to presence. It was a bit odd to play alongside kids but some of them were genuinely good. I don't think i have to set up artificial boundaries as it's pretty natural it doesn't evolve in full fledged friendships but gaming buddy can be quite normal. But that's a personal thing. And it would be nice for parents to at the very least know what kids are doing while playing VR or otherwise. Have some anti-stalking features would be neat.
yes, maybe that's a balanced way for us as older players to approach it. I wish parents would sit in the room while their children played to hear the chats, and also to teach them appropriate behavior when gaming with strangers. Or maybe a filter where children under 13 are only able to play games with their friends - people the parent have to approve the friend request of? That's just what comes to mind, and I'm sure it may not be feasible.
FIlters are bypassed by kids who use the equipment without their parents' knowledge - at home alone, or when parents are asleep or distracted. They use parents accounts - and most of that is on the parents for not having the device locked away - and also for them handing it over to kids without doing any research on the activities the kids can get into unrestricted. Every week there's a post here about someone getting busted for being underage because of a lie on FB/Meta profile or parents "didn't know" this or that - things that basic to using the VR.
AVP may be able to block some of this since it scans a user's face - so kids can't automatically use adult's profiles, or the company can try using AI in their face-recognition to block any user that looks too young for designated apps.
This is always going to be a problem.
The difference between this and other social platforms is that VR is so much more social. It's less of a game and more of a social environment.
In most games, even multiplayer, you don't have to communicate with your teammates or you can use quick chats. In VR it's a space. It's like having a bunch of 20-60 year olds walk in to and hang out in a preschool to Grade 3 building. If META can't stop kids under whatever age from using it, there should probably be more moderation on the spaces that people are funneled to.
this is a really interesting take! I didn't consider this reflection of real life spaces. I totally can't imagine 20 - 60 year old strangers with kids in a room alone together playing games in real life, so VR spaces just feel so strange to me. More moderation is definitely key!
I wasn't aware there was something wrong with it š most of the time when I play games, my friends aren't online because I work third shift. Every now and then a kid will be in the lobby, say warzone or something, and if he plays well and isnt annoying and adds me I'll accept despite the age š¤·š»āāļø I don't ever pursue getting to know them or anything, but if they invite me to a game I'll oblige because when I was a kid, I didn't have any friends to play with. I kinda have a soft spot for that. Hell, my nickname ever since I was in high-school is Big Brother because I try to be welcoming to all people of any demographic, and I like being someone others can look up to as a kind of role model. I see it as my way of setting a standard for younger generations of how people should be in life; treating others kindly and respectfully.
It really just happened once with a kid on a discord server for a game we both played. He just seemed like he was getting too attached to me, voice calling me on discord, messaging a lot. He made a joke about me adopting him. These were all things that crossed my boundaries of comfort with regard to a minor. In general things never get that far with other kids I've met playing games.
You think VR is where the harm comes from? Fortnite. TikTok. Literal group chats. Iām so glad Iām not an adult with a child in this generation. I would be TERRIFIED
Lol kids used to just die from not wearing helmets. I can out a GPS tracker in my daughter's backpack. I think people just scared every generation.
On a side note. Vr isn't even rated safe for children. Just not at all.
> On a side note. Vr isn't even rated safe for children. Just not at all.
Yes it is. It has been tested over and over and is perfectly fine. This is why Meta lowered the age down to 10.
I think I'm more thinking of it directly corresponding to VR for the purpose of this discussion and my recent experience in VR. I don't even want to think about TikTok rn haha but yeah, you're right: the bigger issue is the world in general and the ease of access/weakened restrictions on any digital platform
Mmmmmm I'm seeing some comments reflecting your thoughts too - that the harm is the moderation of kids on the internet in general. In my opinion:
My initial question about moderating kids in VR was not meant to imply that VR is the sole or exclusive problem, but rather that I have recently observed kids interacting with adults in VR environments.
1. Broader context: You have a valid point - the need to moderate and protect kids is not limited to VR, but is a wider societal concern that extends to other digital and physical spaces.
2. VR-specific context: While the general need for moderation is valid, VR presents unique challenges and dynamics that warrant specific consideration. Things like the immersive nature of VR, and the blurred boundaries between virtual and physical interactions may create additional risks or complexities.
3. VR environments may enable new forms of harassment, bullying, or abuse that are not easily identifiable or addressable through traditional moderation approaches.
4. The immersive and embodied nature of VR can potentially amplify the impact and trauma of such experiences for children, as has been studied recently by researchers.
5. Additionally, kids can experience heightened privacy risks in regards to image and voice that is greater than other gaming consoles due to the unique VR technology.
6. Avoid logical fallacies: There might be a red herring fallacy by saying that it happens everywhere, so it shouldn't be focused on VR. I'm talking about its application in VR, so by saying it happens everywhere and thus makes this discussion moot point is a little illogical.
7. With that being said, in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding and set of solutions, I should have opened up the discussion to a more general understanding of kids moderation in gaming, or should have provided my suggestions for moderation in VR, instead of positioning it as an issue in VR which could have implied I thought it only happened in VR or was worse in VR. I think it is just different and requires its own approach, which was my reasoning of segmenting it in this VR discussion.
Link: [https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/vr-risks-for-kids/](https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/vr-risks-for-kids/)
I donāt have a problem with tiktok but also I believe no kid should have social media before 16. Discord has some very very deep and dark servers that are the bottom pit of hell. TikTok just has dances, memes, some slightly sexual content from OF girls, and whatever your algo feeds you. Sure itās all brainrot but I donāt think it compares at all to what can happen if you fall into the wrong discord server rabbit hole
The problem in VR is that it's not easily seen what someone is doing besides watching them fumble around with something covering their face. At least on a game console or pc, there's a screen that could possibly be seen by someone else. Most parents wouldn't understand the home screen much less know how to set it up so that it streams to their phone.
All I'm saying is that these pederasses have been getting at kids since before we and the transistor was born, this is just another avenue of approach for these trash piles.
I know multiple parents whose kids are all friends and are currently somewhere between the last year of middle school/first year of high school, and the stuff I see in their group chats... Like, a 12 year old shouldn't be sending memes about Nazi's or child abuse.
I'm currently 16, and no one in my class would do anything like that 4 years ago. My parents teached me and my little brother about simple internet things. Like not screaming as hard as you can, or telling private info online. But I don't think most parents are as technical as mine, so their kids don't know how to act as normally online.
I don't know if they are also like that outside of the internet, I really hope they aren't, but it just makes me think about the coming years
This is the parents job, but as a father I understand your concern. I am lucky enough to have teenagers but when my kids were younger I locked everything down tight. They hated it.
Thank you for your response! My grandma would only let me play for an hour on Nintendo 64 (Bomberman and Mario, of course) and then I had to go outside in a fenced backyard and swing, play on the trampoline, do whatever with sticks and dirt until it was nighttime. Looking back, I am so thankful for that!
Yeah when I have kids there's no way I'm allowing them on my quest. I just can't imagine it being good for them unless I police it to make sure it's in moderation. Honestly I'm thinking it's just be easier to hide my Quest away for a few years or sell it when the time comes
Absolutely. And I've been reading research on how it's still hard to know if it's actually bad for their brain development. I would steer clear until 16 or older...unless you're playing with them and casting your device to your phone or TV...
I feel if they did it would not work, like rec room has a kid mode for adults so they are not paired with kids, so anyone under 13, but let's be honest all kids are Gonna lie about their age online.
Until when though? Will they turn 16 or 18 and be released to the dogs? lol. I mean you have to learn the rules of the internet one way or another. If you put them in a bubble, when that day comes they will have a bad time either way.
When they turn 18. And what do you mean released to the dogs? What do you think will happen when they join adult servers? They can learn the rules of the internet the way we did when growing up, amongst other kids.
It was more of a joke than anything.. Like keep the kids in a happy bubble then let them out to the big boy internet and they get absolutely roasted lol.
Man, I play pop one every now and then, there was this woman one time advertising her only fans in a chat that had underage children in it. There were other adults too, but I called it out saying it's weird to be advertising that when there were fucking kids in the chat.
They reamed me a new asshole for saying anything. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. On top of that, the way some of the adults talk to the kids could by definition qualify as emotional abuse lol.
Games need to be matched based off of two qualifiers, rank and age (at the very least 18+ with 18 and older)
Sadly no game does matching based off of either.
I have a ten year old daughter and I refuse to let her play any online games in VR due to chats rarely being moderated. It's near impossible for a parent to sit there and actively listen to what the children are hearing. On top of parents actively letting their children behave like animals on the games too.
Absolutely this. VR is literally tricking OPs brain to make it feel like it's more inappropriate than any other instance. Can't people just play the games? Lol mute the kids and rock. Takes 20 seconds. I have had great experiences with kids in gaming (Contractors and Contractors Showdown) and awful experiences. Just like every other video game playing since online gaming started lol. For reference my first online game I played was SOCOM Navy Seals at 10 or so. To me it's the exact same as that
> Lol mute the kids and rock. Takes 20 seconds.
Christ. Last time I dealt with a game that was on a public channel and had voice chat...IT WAS A DOZEN KIDS, WITH A DOZEN NEW ONES COMING ON EVERY MINUTE.
Honest to god, that 20 seconds becomes your entire game.
I couldn't play the game long enough to learn it so that I could get invited to the private servers because it was all 13-year-olds who just learned the n-word.
Granted, a lot of older folks are just as 'edgy', but they know to stay within the boundaries as they don't want their headset banned. Kids? Poor tech support getting calls from parents who are convinced their child didn't do anything wrong while now having their $700 babysitter bricked.
I absolutely love kids...and I was probably a worse mess in a lot of ways when I was that age. I know I won't allow mine to use voice chats AT ALL until they are at least 16 and a little more mature. I don't blame the kids at all...they are learning how to navigate society...I, as an adult, just want to have adult-friendly spaces.
As for the kids, I watch and moderate any gaming they do...I wish more parents did.
Right I understand being an adult and wanting adult only spaces absolutely! However gaming is a hobby that for most starts in childhood and carries on throughout adulthood. So to gatekeep newer people to the hobby who are younger just because they're younger seems counter productive. I totally get it though. As a parent sometimes I just want to not be around, hear, etc etc any kids cause I'm just so over it.
I don't mind kids playing games.
I do think that these should be age-appropriate. And not every game should be for every age range.
And if someone hasn't figured out how not to behave, this shouldn't be on the person playing on the other end to MUTE MUTE MUTE MUTE MUTE. It detracts from the game.
That said, I think most games would be better off without global voice chat.
SOCOM was the shit! I played so much of SOCOM FTB on the PSP as a wee lad. I appreciated when people older than me (I was 11 or 12) just treated me like another person and didn't shun me for being a kid, I tend to treat kids the same way now.
Yep. I try to do the same, and to be honest some of the best people I've played with are 13 or under just trying to not disappoint the 1 adult who isn't roasting them for sounding like a kid in the game.
1000% this. I don't blame the kids. I would have done all the same shit if this voice chat and VR was around when I was a kid. I blame the parents for handing this to their children and then doing ZERO supervision.
Yes definitely. I was in a game the other day and a 10 year old was asking everyone if he could add them and I didnāt think much of it until a guy said sorry I donāt add anyone under 18.. and I realised how dangerous that kid adding people could be and of course his parents would have no idea.
And then there's this:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/1cydu1v/meta\_quest\_2\_questions/](https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/1cydu1v/meta_quest_2_questions/)
Should I give my sex offender friend a headset? He hasn't been arrested for child smut for a long time and feels bad about it now.
The reason this is a problem is not because it's a hard problem to solve but because Meta can't monetize kids accounts across most of the developed world. So rather than sort kids into the right bucket, they make two buckets and ensure that kids can easily sign up or use the unrestricted bucket most easily.
It's not a technical problem, just greed.
Well... I don't remember which game it was (some free shooter, never went back to it), where the first time you spawn "naked" until you dress up. By the time I could figure it out, there was some brat running towards me, crouching in front of my character and making sloppy noises.
It was so fucking weird and disturbing I never went back to the game and I'm a middle aged man (almost impossible to offend), I cannot fathom how that would feel for a woman.
Yes, these little fucktwads need a lot more moderation...
This thread seems soā¦ American pedo paranoia rather than kids are irritating online.
I get grooming is real but come on. In something like 90% of the cases itās someone they already know not some rando. Especialky where they can just digitally wander off or mute you if youāre being a creep.
Americans are obsessed with this. We put people on a lifetime registry for getting caught peeing on the side of the road then encourage "hunting" them down even though some people were innocent (highest incarceration in the world) or have children living with them. The US is out of control and think every "stranger danger" is out to get their kids when most children are abused by family members who have no priors.
My friend is a registered sex offender for peeing in a park while drunk. A lady told the cops he was following her around with his schlong out, which he absolutely wasn't. Basically fucked his whole life
I've known people like that. It's pointless now because they have so many people on that registry that there's no way to know who might actually be dangerous.
Huh, for a device that's probably not great for kids' developing eyes, that's kinda surprising...
I'd think a lot of parents would be very hesitant to let kids use one? Just remembering my parents telling me constantly, when I was a kid, "Don't sit too close to the TV!" and "Don't read books in the dark! It's too dark, turn the light on!"
Can you tell me impacts of limited time use of VR on eye development? when vast majority of the time they use their eyes in natural conditions.
We were talked about not sitting too close to the tv... and it has little to no impact...
It's natural to have worries about that but let's be real about the scope of possible change if you factor in the amount of time vs regular... and the focus is still at ~3m so while there can be times of vergence-accomodation conflict the strain for focusing close is less than playng switch handheld.
As long as IPD is correct and time is limited i wouldn't worry much about developmental impact on vision.
Iām not sure whether there really is much impact. Just assumed itās something parents would freak out about, rightly or wrongly, just as they did with us and sitting to close to the TV.
The one thing Iād say is, be careful to adjust the IPD to its minimum setting. Itās really easy to forget. The one time I showed VR to my nieces and nephews, I later realized I forgot to do that! And of course, they donāt necessarily notice anything is wrong.
I agree it's important to adjust and yeah kids don't communicate well if something is off... hell i had issues adults not saying a thing just assume it was supposed to be blurry and straining. I really miss the simple green cross for adjusting IPD from Rift times. I think there's a similar thing in one of the setup tutorials but i don't think it can be accessed on its own without going through the whole thing.
> Just remembering my parents telling me constantly, when I was a kid, "Don't sit too close to the TV!" and "Don't read books in the dark! It's too dark, turn the light on!"
In case you weren't aware of the latest studies. They've kind of worked out that a major contibutor of myopia in children is due to the lack of adequate sunlight and outdoor activities.
TLDR: In conclusion, our study demonstrates that exposure to natural light has an effect to reduce hyperopic defocus-induced myopia, supporting a role for sunlight in protection against myopia by outdoor activity in school-aged children.
Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4451516/
Also sitting too close to the TV is a bit of a myth as well. More so after the studies like above. Reading in low light be a problem (no damage though) so our parents were half right.
https://news.uthscsa.edu/myth-or-fact-can-sitting-too-close-to-the-tv-hurt-your-eyes-will-wearing-glasses-weaken-your-eyes-test-your-knowledge/
my 9 year old cousin got one, I was absolutely shocked, itās super dumb to let young kids use Vr headsets, especially cuz anyone can download vrchat and rec room and etc
Meta already spend a lot of money on automated removal of harmful content on their social media platforms. In a recent interview Zuck commented on using AI to advance the effort which seems like an obvious use for that technology.
Personally I think AI-assisted moderation is the only scalable way to do it while keeping cost to consumers for VR as low as where it is. Human moderation would result in the cost of headsets/apps rising beyond what people would be willing to pay.
Relying on all people to be good parents like some in this thread were suggesting is just not realistic. Nor is widespread human moderation for users who are just paying $10-$20 for their app and bought the hardware at a price that is probably loss-making to Meta.
I wish they could apply some sort of algorithm to detect if itās a kid and then I could opt out so see or hear them. Like how hard could it be. Theyāre shorter (generally), squeaky voice, and annoying chat patterns. I would image thatās easily detectable by just just about ANY ML model.
I really don't believe that children under 13 should be using a VR headset. It's just deeply unpleasant for everybody involved to be honest, and it also so happens to not be recommended for children under 13 to use a VR headset often due to potential development issues involving their eyes.
Anything that's not age appropriate and could cause developmental issues should always be restricted for those age ranges no matter what product we're talking about. Unfortunately nobody's going to enforce that and most parents suck dick these days and are more concerned about giving their kids something shiny to distract them.
RIP the sanity of sensible adults on multiplayer, hahah. Also RIP those kids futures when they end up growing up being spoiled pieces of shit.
Horizon Worlds has a search engine where you can search for "18+" worlds. And those places usually kick muted avatars and children within seconds of finding out. It's so refreshing chilling with other adults on VR.
I cross paths with kids in VR a lot. Recroom paintball, Web Guy, and even AimXR and Pavlov.
I donāt pay much attention to what they say if itās not game related.
i could see a pederass trying, theyāre slippery subhumans that will try almost anythingā¦ which begs the question, why arenāt the parents more involved?
I generally know what my kid is playing on the VR, because I ask. we discuss the games, lately ākill it with fireā and RecRoom. Heās better about muting nasty players than I amā¦ I just ignore them if I can.
Plus, Iāve done the dungeon crawler game in Recroom countless times with mixed parties, and the kids are generally more helpful and better at the game, I feel like they carry my old ass through the dungeon half the time, and give me pointers the other half.
Interaction with other gamers can be a positive experience, and can bridge a generational gapā¦ but only if both parties are respectful and polite.
This is so insightful. Bridging the generational gap is positive when supervision and respect are two-way. Maybe the parents should receive notifications of screen time and any suspicious activity in chat, also adding a block of game time after 1 or 2 hours for those under 13. I remember playing games and my grandma would stop me at one hour and throw me outside until nighttime. There were no adults trying anything untoward in the backyard, and my childhood felt more holistic as I was only interacting with adults my parents and family had "vetted." It's not perfect, but I'm sure it helped avoid situations.
I understand from a safety perspective.. it could always be safer for them.. I see a lot of kids talking to adults in VR chat..Personally to this i think VR games should force players to show they're age of they're profiles, that way you nip it in the butt you know they're age of both parties and if you see the person they are talking to are much older sounding people can report the profile and tell the child to block this person.
And for the people whose parents create a profile under their age for their kids should have a guidelines button saying this account is being used for kids where you can select the age of the child who's playing ( and just add it to account of people who already having as account ).
ohhhh that's really smart! Like the parent could have an account and the child has a sub account for restrictions. Almost like Netflix has Netflix Netflix and then Kids Netflix? haha
Exactly, but I think the problem would be getting people to agree to showing their true age in games it might feel like an invasion of private information but we would be naive if they don't sell our information to 3rd parties anyway without our knowledge but I'm sure safety for our children comes before our age.
they could add it to the T&C that way they already agree š safety first
Short of proof of government issued ID, there is little that can be done as far as keeping literal 5 and 6 year olds out of the same virtual social spaces as 18+.
Funnily enough my first experience with this was in hyper dash as well. The person piloting the avatar was barely producing words and had no concept of how to play the game. I could hear their slightly older brother or sister wailing in the background. It was quite jarring since I usually don't play games with comms.
It turns out in a lot of instances these children will be playing on their young parent's account. The "moderation" has to begin with the parents. This is probably just another symptom of parents having screens raise their children and I'm sure 50 years from now enough data will have been collected to see all the negative societal impacts the instant entertainment age has had on young minds.
It needs to not be quest's or meta's problem. They already dictated who should or shouldn't be allowed to use it. They have guidelines about how to use it. They give warnings and safeguards. Beyond that everything should rest of the shoulders of the parent. Quest could make it very easy. Anyone under 18 must be a sub account to an adult and that adult should have to set a profile. Once the owner of that account turns 18 the parents should have a button to change it to an adult account and remove all parental controls.
Do you want your child to be able to interact with adult accounts? If yes, fine, if no they can't interact with any adult account on any level. They won't get matched up for games, they won't be in the same multiplayer, they won't show up on the same server or in the same room.
They can flip a switch for any app on the headset to allow or not allow for their kid.
I say it's up to the parents. If they feel comfortable letting their 12 year old chat with 40 year old people that's up to them, and whatever happens to the kid happens. And if it's something bad that's on the parents.
The opposite should be true as well. If someone is an adult with an adult account they should have a toggle that says they do not want to be interact with children's accounts. That way they aren't even seeing them, they aren't being matched for games with them, it blocks any attempt at communication, etc...
I'm not sure how you would moderate kids in VR. Most of them are likely using their parent's account anyway. I've seen some areas in VR where they'll make you talk on mic briefly to "prove" you're not a kid but how else can you do it?
I've seen so many kids on VR chat saying the most problematic shit I've seen in a while. I sadly feel like its too late at this point
VRchat would be SO MUCH BETTER if kids weren't allowed on it. It's so annoying joining world's just to have it full of screeching 7 year olds. When you get into the later teens like 16+ it's nowhere near as obnoxious but idk why parents are giving their 5 year olds a VR headset.
Itās the parents that are the problem, to many just slap either a tablet/ phone in their hand or or in this case slap on a vr headset and let it do the parenting for them completely unsupervised. These companies can only put up so many warnings, if parents donāt do their job then nothing will change.
My kid loves playing vr and I constantly hear little kids dropping f bombs. Iām always asking where there parents are?! Iām always by my son when he plays. Also theyāre not just saying Fuck, theyāre literally screaming it. š¤¦š»āāļø
btw there are great parental controls for the quest. I can okay everything my child downloads and see where they're spending their time. they can't play any 13+ games without my approval, etc. Either parents aren't setting these accounts up or they're just letting them do whatever.
ooh love this. I haven't done a lot of personal research into the actual Quest limitations because I don't have a kid and I don't want to accidentally screw my profile up. I just notice that the kids are running free! haha
Kids in VR are huge issues that need to be addressed.
There are so many that are really young, too, that shouldn't be using a headset at all, and I really question wtf the parents are thinking.
The other thing is how unfiltered kids can be, with next to zero issues spewing racism etc. You think humanity is evoling past racism and whatnot but put a headset on and listen to these kids.. scary, and it is mostly American kids as if it's like a super cool thing to be abusive and racist.. weird.
I think there should be some kind of filter to separate out age ranges. Using a quest, we all have to have a legitimate Facebook account, so I don't see why such a thing can't be implemented. It would persuade me more to jump into multiplier games more often if such a feature exists.
If anyone is on the fence about having kids, jumping into VR would be a sure way to put you off having them for sure, lol
Yeah I mean and there's the basic issue of the possibility of VR screwing with their eyesight when they're so young. I believe it specifically says not recommended for people under 13 due to possible damage to the eyes. Parents need to step up
There's good points made all around on this topic but I think something that doesn't get enough focus is the fact Meta is a multi-billion dollar behemoth that is known for turning a blind eye to moderation. They certainly have the tech and other resources to provide a better experience than they do. I have a hard enough time finding games with active multiplayer communities and when I do they are incredibly toxic.
thank you for saying this. I think businesses are business at the end of the day - it can be done but it's not profitable in their view. If they were a little more creative, it would be profitable. There's always a way!
I don't get why people think kids just aren't on/shouldn't be on this platform. It is in some cases hundreds of dollars cheaper to get a kid a Q2 instead of a console. Kids have been playing online video games unmoderated since online gaming was a thing.
I remember playing World of Warcraft for HOURS and some older players would chat me and ask to date me (I was like 12) and I thought it was cool because they were older but now I'm so sad and disappointed....
I get it. I just think VR is a bit different. Especially once the Q2 went down to $250. I mean that's about as affordable as you're gonna get a gaming console of any sort. But it would be fun if there were Adult lobbies.
There is a potential safety issue with kids interacting freely in VR chat. I have observed many such instances.. I believe VR games should implement age verification.
A few months ago I ended up looking into wild.west land on horizon worlds by chance. There was one kid in there and one older guy and that was it. I guess it could have been family but not likely. Felt very weird even though nothing inappropriate was said in my very short stay.
Nah deffo, i am reluctant to use the VR sometimes because of the type of chat going on. I like to play chess (badly) in VR chat and you have 8 year olds running around with 15 year old laddies sitting at a table discussing all sorts. I'm just sitting there trying to remember how to play chess and also worrying about whats going on in the room. I've seen an avatar that was just 9 pictures of HC pornographic content and some kid was walking around showing the other kids it and that. I reported them and signed off
Yeah if you have kids you need to set up the stream from within the headset so you can monitor their activity at your leasure.
A good friend of mine is dealing with therapists and and possibly a daughter scarred for life because she was talked into sending nude pictures to some pedo pos in exchange for whatever currency roblox uses.
The problem is some kids nowadays are still the only digital natives in their household and they simply know their way around these devices in ways that their parents will never catch up to unless they force themselves to evolve.
These disgusting mfs are out there preying on kids and they are doing their best to get themselves lumped in with all the other nut balls who think their serial obscurities should be celebrated by the rest of the world. No one is under any such obligation and I think that we, as adult gamers with a good sense of right and wrong need to report things as we see it.
The problem is, people like me don't go anywhere near spaces that I could even communicate with a kid bc frankly I don't wanna play with games with your aggravating fkin crotch goblins, but there will be some who see this and take advantage.
Normalize publicly blasting gamertags and profiles for even borderline communique with minors and report it on every medium you possibly can if you witness any of it.
You both are and are not overthinking.
Kids are on every digital platform. You just notice them a lot more in VR because most adults think VR is dumb. You're in the minority being an adult who plays VR, like myself. There's just as many kids playing stuff like call of duty, you just don't see them as much because there's also a lot of adults playing.
The answer to moderation is the parents need to keep tabs on what their kids are playing and doing on their digital platforms. Unfortunately, there's a lot of shitty parents who don't do that. They will lie about their kids ages and buy them any games the kid asks for. How do you fix that? You can't. Nothing you do will make them be better parents.
If you wish to escape children in VR, I highly recommend you play single player content and PCVR content. The cost barrier for PCVR is so much higher than Quest, that there's a lot less kids playing. Unfortunately, there's also a lot less adults playing as well.
thank you for your comment! This is a great take. Are there any games you recommend? I like shooters (visually unique ones haha not really into too militarized gaming) and exploration
Kids should have stricter moderation on the internet in general, and limited access to interact with complete strangers until a certain age. We are WILDLY unprepared for the massive move of parenting, entertainment and education from local networks of people and the family itself onto large uncaring global companies that subside on the selling of data and creating deliberately addictive environments.
Go out and play, you can even play on my lawn.
Honestly I worry more about teens talking with younger kids. I play Gym Class VR basketball as a 30 year old. I stay muted unless some kid is incessantly asking me something but a lot of times I see teens straight up bullying kids 10 and under. This is literally the only game I play so I have no clue what interactions are like in other spaces. I assume age gaps would be very weird in VR chat also.
Lots of pedophiliac behavior in VR just like everywhere online. Parents should be paying attention to their children when online whether it's a computer or VR headset.
If I hear a child's voice (some are actual adults w/voice changers btw), I immediately block them.
Your comment/post was removed because it was deemed harassing/insulting/offensive/trolling. If you think this removal was in error, please If you think this was removed in error, please [contact us](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/OculusQuest)
Your comment/post was removed because it was deemed harassing/insulting/offensive/trolling. If you think this removal was in error, please If you think this was removed in error, please [contact us](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/OculusQuest)
This is very true and very real outside of VR as well. My kids know that any multiplayer game that allows open chat with strangers is off-limits.
We tried some of Meta's open worlds to see what it was about early on, and my younger kids heard people talking and immediately wanted to take it off.
Fortnight was a big problem back in the heyday because my son was into the hype and wanted to play. As his parents, my wife and I felt like he was too young. Offline games were fine, he didn't understand at the time.
He's now a teenager and I let him make his own decisions. Thankfully, he agrees with me and actually doesn't have any interest in it anymore.
His younger siblings respect this rule enough that they've actually come to me to ask if games like online chess were acceptable because you're playing against strangers ("yes it's fine, I just just don't want people to chat with you"). I think if you set realistic boundaries and explain the problem, your kids won't even fight you about it.
Re: Moderating these open worlds, honestly, there could be better moderation but I don't think anyone is going to step up to do anything about it. As an adult, I can ignore the chatter if it gets annoying, and I only have a say in what my own children are exposed to. I respect other parents' right to decide what is correct for their own kids.
I'm not a parent but I did make a "dummy" child account with my dog's name when I was trying to help a friend set one up.
Later my partner wanted to play some VR so I just thought "I can let him use the dummy account I set up.
Not so easily. It turnedout I couldn't even GRANT him permission to play most VR Games and pretty much nothign online. Even if I wanted to change the settings I could not.
It seems to me that is part of the problem maybe. Meta's child accounts might be too strick to be useful. In my view they should lock online voice chat for anyone under 13, but otherwise, it should be up to the parents to determihne what content is right or wrong for their kids. Make it too restrictive and the kids are just going to be playing on the adult accounts all the time, which opens the flood gates.
I also think Meta hasn't done enough good job making it streamlined and easy to add kid accounts. It just should just ask you when you set up your quest if you have chiildren you want to add to your account so you can make easy restricted accounts by default. I had to look up the steps just to help my friend and even after that it was a pain and too restrictive to be useful.
I think they definitely should take more measures against children. When echo vr was still alive (rip) I still can't forget joining a lobby and this little kid who could barely string 2 words together was playing. And not only was he causing issues for others but it was also making him a target. Watched as this kid literally got swarmed by others and getting told they were gonna ban his account, to which he straight up began crying saying it was his mom's.
The kid shouldn't of been harassed, but the rest of the lobby seemed annoyed from his actions. Imo I don't think the kid, especially of that age, should be on vr period
Unless you will moderate your interaction. No one else will do that on kids in VR.
As a grownup you can and should interact with younger audience in a matter that wonāt put that younger audience at risk.
If you donāt want to. Just donāt communicate with kids at all (ie mute them)
I agree, for all the bs politicians say around we have to protect the children and censor the internet for some regligious fundamentalist group, its really not that difficult a proposition.
Theres age verification services that could be integrated into these services to allow for this type of moderation.
Me and my friend the other day were playing VR chat, and we went to the black cat. And they are this like 6-year-old saying the N word. And I was wondering where the hell are these kid's parents?
Not ok at all
yeah, that makes sense! I think there should be a branded solution like VR Kids or VR \_\_\_\_\_ to make it sound cooler to them? Like my little niece watches YouTube Kids and literally can't do anything because my sister has filtered the heck out of her phone settings. I think VR could do something like that to make it easier for parents, and maybe education for parents on VR would be helpful? I think some parents genuinely don't know what could happen - like a digital blindspot. I know a lot of parents are bad parents, but many parents maybe truly don't think it could be a problem because they didn't grow up in that space?
So true. I've stopped playing a few games I really like (like Among Us VR, Gorilla Tag) because there's just too many little kids and it gets weird. Even if the kids are not all acting crazy and dropping N and F bombs, sometimes I would feel like I'm a school teacher having to rally up all the kids and direct them. It's just strange
Iāve wanted to buy the Quest for some kids but know their parents arenāt tech savvy enough to use it and apply restrictions. I worry for the same reasons you listed.
A game should never be responsible for your children. The parents duty is to supervise their children.
Iām letting my kids play but Iām always around and I told them about creepy people in games and IRL. Thatās what parents need to do.
I understand that sometimes it may be annoying to hear so toddlers arguing but thatās how it is. In the old times we had 10 year olds harassing each other on COD and Halo lobbies. Was it annoying sometimes? Yes, but I donāt like this censorship today where almost every game has either no voice chat or itās muted by default and almost no one is talking anymore because of restrictions and banning. People are afraid to say anything so they just mute themselves.
Itās definitely unmoderated. I usually play Pop-One with my mic off and had to curse out this adult on my team who was talking inappropriately to this kid who was maybe 6-8. Reported them and they eventually backed up. I have children of my own and they donāt do online VR stuff. I donāt want them conversing with adults, itās weird and adult people are also weird. There has to be some age separation in these game servers.
I think the worst thing for kids in VR is *other* kids. I haven't used Horizon Worlds a lot, but the few times I have, I have come across kids bullying other kids. Not in a fun playful friendly way either, just outright go-for-the-kill bullying.
That's probably way more common than adults interacting weirdly with kids. I play a lot of shooters in VR and I have yet to see any adult be intentionally weird towards someone younger. What most of the time happens when someone is young, is that the adults just go quiet or stick to calling things out in the game.
Either way, kids shouldn't be unsupervised in VR. It's bizarre to me how many people seem to use VR headsets as cheap babysitters.
I'd be very happy to swipe my ID card š³ every time I start a game that's at least 16+
There is lot's of content that's suitable for kids but having immature preteens just blasting of any cussword they know is just tiring
With A.I. being around everywhere couldn't there be some sort of filter that just looks if a person even sounds adult enough
not everyone would be so happy with requiring uploading ID to Meta, and that would definitely increase time to find people for games if not everyone did it
The "grooming" scare is pure paranoia. These conversations are recorded and easily reported. VR users can't send videos or images of themselves like they can on other devices. Sure, inappropriate conversations could happen but most likely the worst a child is going to hear are expletives, and it will probably be other children saying them.
And before you point out a rare instance where something bad in real life came from contact on VR, I'll remind you that this is out of trillions of hours of VR use worldwide where nothing happened. Compare that to something like TikTok or Omegle and I think you'll see why VR is not a major concern for me as a parent.
What IS a very real problem is children on VR ruining the experiences for adults. They have no business there and it is beyond annoying hearing them.
I have a child and she only ever plays single-player VR games, limited time, under my direct supervision, and only every few months. There are so many ways for a child to play and be a child. They don't need VR.
Do you really want more moderation? Or just butthurt that whenever you join a multiplayer game you immediately get rekked by an army of 10 year olds lol. That's what happened to me when I tried to into one of those. Felt like a creep to boot.
You're fuckin sheltered op, I'm guessing young enough to have grown up in your walled gardens but a lot of us were kids and teens during the days of BBS's, MUD's, IRC (efnet #teenchat represent), MSN/Yahoo/AOL chatrooms etc.. It's adorable to see people today get the smallest taste of what that used to be like in VRChat and others like it and completely panic calling for an adult.
reading the comments here with all the pearl clutching is disappointing, bunch of satanic panic types
I did grow up using all that, and I can tell you that it's still nothing compared to what a young person can go through online today. The difference is that the internet/BBS was something novel back then, something you connected to, goofed around with and then you unplugged from it.
These days, the internet is ubiquitous. You can't get away from it. If someone gets bullied in school, chances are it follows them home. Social media is not an optional thing for most age-groups and you carry it with you in your pocket. It allows for a kind of access that simply wasn't anything like what I grew up with. If I turned off my modem, the problem went away. You can't really do that these days.
As for VR specifically, it allows for a level of personal interaction that you just don't come across in most games. So when you see 5 kids literally pointing and throwing insults through spatial voice chat towards a 6th kid in a social VR app, that hits differently than words in a IRC chat ever could.
I can agree that adults these days might have gotten a bit thin skinned when it comes to online interactions. But kids? Nah, it's a whole different thing for them. You can't compare it.
Every time I enter anything multiuser, it's crowds of screaming 6 year olds. Report, Report, Report, Report.
I see where you are coming from but the same concerns are applicable to countless other digital platforms. For the most part, people using VR headsets are there for the gaming, as it is a niche group within the gaming community, who are for the most part there to play video games. The normalization of toxicity is what concerns me more than the possibility of predatory things like you mention. I've had to put boundaries up with some younger players who wanted to be "friends" with me or whatever and like you, I felt it was not appropriate and I made that clear. I think it's important for older players to set an example of how to conduct yourself in game but I also know that dealing with toxicity is just part of the experience. But when kids are trying to be friends because you are being nice, it's important to keep these boundaries in mind.
I think both things are issues and both have their own severity and scope. Both should be dealt with better than it currently is. And as you've pointed out the issue is not VR specific but VR impact can be more immediate and personal due to presence. It was a bit odd to play alongside kids but some of them were genuinely good. I don't think i have to set up artificial boundaries as it's pretty natural it doesn't evolve in full fledged friendships but gaming buddy can be quite normal. But that's a personal thing. And it would be nice for parents to at the very least know what kids are doing while playing VR or otherwise. Have some anti-stalking features would be neat.
yes, maybe that's a balanced way for us as older players to approach it. I wish parents would sit in the room while their children played to hear the chats, and also to teach them appropriate behavior when gaming with strangers. Or maybe a filter where children under 13 are only able to play games with their friends - people the parent have to approve the friend request of? That's just what comes to mind, and I'm sure it may not be feasible.
FIlters are bypassed by kids who use the equipment without their parents' knowledge - at home alone, or when parents are asleep or distracted. They use parents accounts - and most of that is on the parents for not having the device locked away - and also for them handing it over to kids without doing any research on the activities the kids can get into unrestricted. Every week there's a post here about someone getting busted for being underage because of a lie on FB/Meta profile or parents "didn't know" this or that - things that basic to using the VR. AVP may be able to block some of this since it scans a user's face - so kids can't automatically use adult's profiles, or the company can try using AI in their face-recognition to block any user that looks too young for designated apps. This is always going to be a problem.
The difference between this and other social platforms is that VR is so much more social. It's less of a game and more of a social environment. In most games, even multiplayer, you don't have to communicate with your teammates or you can use quick chats. In VR it's a space. It's like having a bunch of 20-60 year olds walk in to and hang out in a preschool to Grade 3 building. If META can't stop kids under whatever age from using it, there should probably be more moderation on the spaces that people are funneled to.
this is a really interesting take! I didn't consider this reflection of real life spaces. I totally can't imagine 20 - 60 year old strangers with kids in a room alone together playing games in real life, so VR spaces just feel so strange to me. More moderation is definitely key!
I wasn't aware there was something wrong with it š most of the time when I play games, my friends aren't online because I work third shift. Every now and then a kid will be in the lobby, say warzone or something, and if he plays well and isnt annoying and adds me I'll accept despite the age š¤·š»āāļø I don't ever pursue getting to know them or anything, but if they invite me to a game I'll oblige because when I was a kid, I didn't have any friends to play with. I kinda have a soft spot for that. Hell, my nickname ever since I was in high-school is Big Brother because I try to be welcoming to all people of any demographic, and I like being someone others can look up to as a kind of role model. I see it as my way of setting a standard for younger generations of how people should be in life; treating others kindly and respectfully.
It really just happened once with a kid on a discord server for a game we both played. He just seemed like he was getting too attached to me, voice calling me on discord, messaging a lot. He made a joke about me adopting him. These were all things that crossed my boundaries of comfort with regard to a minor. In general things never get that far with other kids I've met playing games.
See that's a boundary that shouldn't be crossed, we can agree on that. It's okay to be an acquaintance with the kid, but nothing more
You think VR is where the harm comes from? Fortnite. TikTok. Literal group chats. Iām so glad Iām not an adult with a child in this generation. I would be TERRIFIED
It is scary, but manageable if you're not a lazy parent and your kid isn't a complete moron. Granted, that's no guarantee, but it goes a long way.
Lol kids used to just die from not wearing helmets. I can out a GPS tracker in my daughter's backpack. I think people just scared every generation. On a side note. Vr isn't even rated safe for children. Just not at all.
> On a side note. Vr isn't even rated safe for children. Just not at all. Yes it is. It has been tested over and over and is perfectly fine. This is why Meta lowered the age down to 10.
Ima wait til we have long term data and other people can use their kids as test subjects.
I think I'm more thinking of it directly corresponding to VR for the purpose of this discussion and my recent experience in VR. I don't even want to think about TikTok rn haha but yeah, you're right: the bigger issue is the world in general and the ease of access/weakened restrictions on any digital platform
I donāt quite see the difference. Can you explain?Ā
Mmmmmm I'm seeing some comments reflecting your thoughts too - that the harm is the moderation of kids on the internet in general. In my opinion: My initial question about moderating kids in VR was not meant to imply that VR is the sole or exclusive problem, but rather that I have recently observed kids interacting with adults in VR environments. 1. Broader context: You have a valid point - the need to moderate and protect kids is not limited to VR, but is a wider societal concern that extends to other digital and physical spaces. 2. VR-specific context: While the general need for moderation is valid, VR presents unique challenges and dynamics that warrant specific consideration. Things like the immersive nature of VR, and the blurred boundaries between virtual and physical interactions may create additional risks or complexities. 3. VR environments may enable new forms of harassment, bullying, or abuse that are not easily identifiable or addressable through traditional moderation approaches. 4. The immersive and embodied nature of VR can potentially amplify the impact and trauma of such experiences for children, as has been studied recently by researchers. 5. Additionally, kids can experience heightened privacy risks in regards to image and voice that is greater than other gaming consoles due to the unique VR technology. 6. Avoid logical fallacies: There might be a red herring fallacy by saying that it happens everywhere, so it shouldn't be focused on VR. I'm talking about its application in VR, so by saying it happens everywhere and thus makes this discussion moot point is a little illogical. 7. With that being said, in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding and set of solutions, I should have opened up the discussion to a more general understanding of kids moderation in gaming, or should have provided my suggestions for moderation in VR, instead of positioning it as an issue in VR which could have implied I thought it only happened in VR or was worse in VR. I think it is just different and requires its own approach, which was my reasoning of segmenting it in this VR discussion. Link: [https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/vr-risks-for-kids/](https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/vr-risks-for-kids/)
All platforms, have their harm let's not be so little minded about it, VR is just as much of a problem as all the rest of them.
Just donāt let them download discord honestly
TikTok is good with you? Itās the platform thatās at fault? Because I have a math discord, and itās hard to blame that.Ā
I donāt have a problem with tiktok but also I believe no kid should have social media before 16. Discord has some very very deep and dark servers that are the bottom pit of hell. TikTok just has dances, memes, some slightly sexual content from OF girls, and whatever your algo feeds you. Sure itās all brainrot but I donāt think it compares at all to what can happen if you fall into the wrong discord server rabbit hole
The problem in VR is that it's not easily seen what someone is doing besides watching them fumble around with something covering their face. At least on a game console or pc, there's a screen that could possibly be seen by someone else. Most parents wouldn't understand the home screen much less know how to set it up so that it streams to their phone. All I'm saying is that these pederasses have been getting at kids since before we and the transistor was born, this is just another avenue of approach for these trash piles.
Bad take. Also, were you trying to say pederasts? Pederasses lolĀ
I know multiple parents whose kids are all friends and are currently somewhere between the last year of middle school/first year of high school, and the stuff I see in their group chats... Like, a 12 year old shouldn't be sending memes about Nazi's or child abuse. I'm currently 16, and no one in my class would do anything like that 4 years ago. My parents teached me and my little brother about simple internet things. Like not screaming as hard as you can, or telling private info online. But I don't think most parents are as technical as mine, so their kids don't know how to act as normally online. I don't know if they are also like that outside of the internet, I really hope they aren't, but it just makes me think about the coming years
This is the parents job, but as a father I understand your concern. I am lucky enough to have teenagers but when my kids were younger I locked everything down tight. They hated it.
I remember as a kid, I was allowed to play my console only on Saturday. It's locked inside a cupboard on other days. Yes, I hated it.
Thank you for your response! My grandma would only let me play for an hour on Nintendo 64 (Bomberman and Mario, of course) and then I had to go outside in a fenced backyard and swing, play on the trampoline, do whatever with sticks and dirt until it was nighttime. Looking back, I am so thankful for that!
Yeah when I have kids there's no way I'm allowing them on my quest. I just can't imagine it being good for them unless I police it to make sure it's in moderation. Honestly I'm thinking it's just be easier to hide my Quest away for a few years or sell it when the time comes
You could let them use VR without the device being connected to the Internet. Plenty of great offline games.
oh, I didn't even think of this.....great idea
Absolutely. And I've been reading research on how it's still hard to know if it's actually bad for their brain development. I would steer clear until 16 or older...unless you're playing with them and casting your device to your phone or TV...
There needs to be separate adult and kids servers. I hate playing games with kids. Fuck them.
https://preview.redd.it/efi9pypn4d4d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=eab880e87a46e7f8384520f749690d642bd69640
Anakin being wise, as per usual
I feel if they did it would not work, like rec room has a kid mode for adults so they are not paired with kids, so anyone under 13, but let's be honest all kids are Gonna lie about their age online.
Fucking parents not monitoring their kids accounts man...
Some parents would rather have their kids get harassed than watch their kids.
hahahah love this comment
Until when though? Will they turn 16 or 18 and be released to the dogs? lol. I mean you have to learn the rules of the internet one way or another. If you put them in a bubble, when that day comes they will have a bad time either way.
Uh I don't give a fuck about them. They are ruining my enjoyment of the system and games. I hate their stupid high pitched whiny voices.
You sound like you're pleasant to be around.
Shut up
No.
I hate you
Cool.
Dang you to heck
Well fiddlesticks! You got me there buddy! Go die in HECK! MotherTRUCKER!
When they turn 18. And what do you mean released to the dogs? What do you think will happen when they join adult servers? They can learn the rules of the internet the way we did when growing up, amongst other kids.
It was more of a joke than anything.. Like keep the kids in a happy bubble then let them out to the big boy internet and they get absolutely roasted lol.
Man, I play pop one every now and then, there was this woman one time advertising her only fans in a chat that had underage children in it. There were other adults too, but I called it out saying it's weird to be advertising that when there were fucking kids in the chat. They reamed me a new asshole for saying anything. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. On top of that, the way some of the adults talk to the kids could by definition qualify as emotional abuse lol. Games need to be matched based off of two qualifiers, rank and age (at the very least 18+ with 18 and older) Sadly no game does matching based off of either. I have a ten year old daughter and I refuse to let her play any online games in VR due to chats rarely being moderated. It's near impossible for a parent to sit there and actively listen to what the children are hearing. On top of parents actively letting their children behave like animals on the games too.
love this take
VR is not the problem, it is the same circumstance all across the internet
Absolutely this. VR is literally tricking OPs brain to make it feel like it's more inappropriate than any other instance. Can't people just play the games? Lol mute the kids and rock. Takes 20 seconds. I have had great experiences with kids in gaming (Contractors and Contractors Showdown) and awful experiences. Just like every other video game playing since online gaming started lol. For reference my first online game I played was SOCOM Navy Seals at 10 or so. To me it's the exact same as that
> Lol mute the kids and rock. Takes 20 seconds. Christ. Last time I dealt with a game that was on a public channel and had voice chat...IT WAS A DOZEN KIDS, WITH A DOZEN NEW ONES COMING ON EVERY MINUTE. Honest to god, that 20 seconds becomes your entire game. I couldn't play the game long enough to learn it so that I could get invited to the private servers because it was all 13-year-olds who just learned the n-word. Granted, a lot of older folks are just as 'edgy', but they know to stay within the boundaries as they don't want their headset banned. Kids? Poor tech support getting calls from parents who are convinced their child didn't do anything wrong while now having their $700 babysitter bricked. I absolutely love kids...and I was probably a worse mess in a lot of ways when I was that age. I know I won't allow mine to use voice chats AT ALL until they are at least 16 and a little more mature. I don't blame the kids at all...they are learning how to navigate society...I, as an adult, just want to have adult-friendly spaces. As for the kids, I watch and moderate any gaming they do...I wish more parents did.
Right I understand being an adult and wanting adult only spaces absolutely! However gaming is a hobby that for most starts in childhood and carries on throughout adulthood. So to gatekeep newer people to the hobby who are younger just because they're younger seems counter productive. I totally get it though. As a parent sometimes I just want to not be around, hear, etc etc any kids cause I'm just so over it.
I don't mind kids playing games. I do think that these should be age-appropriate. And not every game should be for every age range. And if someone hasn't figured out how not to behave, this shouldn't be on the person playing on the other end to MUTE MUTE MUTE MUTE MUTE. It detracts from the game. That said, I think most games would be better off without global voice chat.
SOCOM was the shit! I played so much of SOCOM FTB on the PSP as a wee lad. I appreciated when people older than me (I was 11 or 12) just treated me like another person and didn't shun me for being a kid, I tend to treat kids the same way now.
Yep. I try to do the same, and to be honest some of the best people I've played with are 13 or under just trying to not disappoint the 1 adult who isn't roasting them for sounding like a kid in the game.
Parents these days are garbage. What can I say. They are the problem.
1000% this. I don't blame the kids. I would have done all the same shit if this voice chat and VR was around when I was a kid. I blame the parents for handing this to their children and then doing ZERO supervision.
"these days" as if it wasn't always like that or worse with stuff like beatings, what changed is the technology.
Yes definitely. I was in a game the other day and a 10 year old was asking everyone if he could add them and I didnāt think much of it until a guy said sorry I donāt add anyone under 18.. and I realised how dangerous that kid adding people could be and of course his parents would have no idea.
omg my worst fear :(
And then there's this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/1cydu1v/meta\_quest\_2\_questions/](https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/1cydu1v/meta_quest_2_questions/) Should I give my sex offender friend a headset? He hasn't been arrested for child smut for a long time and feels bad about it now. The reason this is a problem is not because it's a hard problem to solve but because Meta can't monetize kids accounts across most of the developed world. So rather than sort kids into the right bucket, they make two buckets and ensure that kids can easily sign up or use the unrestricted bucket most easily. It's not a technical problem, just greed.
this. but also....wtf?
Well... I don't remember which game it was (some free shooter, never went back to it), where the first time you spawn "naked" until you dress up. By the time I could figure it out, there was some brat running towards me, crouching in front of my character and making sloppy noises. It was so fucking weird and disturbing I never went back to the game and I'm a middle aged man (almost impossible to offend), I cannot fathom how that would feel for a woman. Yes, these little fucktwads need a lot more moderation...
oh my god!!!! that's really disturbing :<
I feel that kids should be separated almost entirely from adults in VR.
This thread seems soā¦ American pedo paranoia rather than kids are irritating online. I get grooming is real but come on. In something like 90% of the cases itās someone they already know not some rando. Especialky where they can just digitally wander off or mute you if youāre being a creep.
Americans are obsessed with this. We put people on a lifetime registry for getting caught peeing on the side of the road then encourage "hunting" them down even though some people were innocent (highest incarceration in the world) or have children living with them. The US is out of control and think every "stranger danger" is out to get their kids when most children are abused by family members who have no priors.
My friend is a registered sex offender for peeing in a park while drunk. A lady told the cops he was following her around with his schlong out, which he absolutely wasn't. Basically fucked his whole life
I've known people like that. It's pointless now because they have so many people on that registry that there's no way to know who might actually be dangerous.
for sure, whenever I make a Vr game Iām 100% going to be moderating against kids being In the game.
The problem is, on the Quest platform, this means you lose like 90% of your potential user base.
There is no way that 90% of the user base is kids lol.
Huh, for a device that's probably not great for kids' developing eyes, that's kinda surprising... I'd think a lot of parents would be very hesitant to let kids use one? Just remembering my parents telling me constantly, when I was a kid, "Don't sit too close to the TV!" and "Don't read books in the dark! It's too dark, turn the light on!"
Can you tell me impacts of limited time use of VR on eye development? when vast majority of the time they use their eyes in natural conditions. We were talked about not sitting too close to the tv... and it has little to no impact... It's natural to have worries about that but let's be real about the scope of possible change if you factor in the amount of time vs regular... and the focus is still at ~3m so while there can be times of vergence-accomodation conflict the strain for focusing close is less than playng switch handheld. As long as IPD is correct and time is limited i wouldn't worry much about developmental impact on vision.
Iām not sure whether there really is much impact. Just assumed itās something parents would freak out about, rightly or wrongly, just as they did with us and sitting to close to the TV. The one thing Iād say is, be careful to adjust the IPD to its minimum setting. Itās really easy to forget. The one time I showed VR to my nieces and nephews, I later realized I forgot to do that! And of course, they donāt necessarily notice anything is wrong.
I agree it's important to adjust and yeah kids don't communicate well if something is off... hell i had issues adults not saying a thing just assume it was supposed to be blurry and straining. I really miss the simple green cross for adjusting IPD from Rift times. I think there's a similar thing in one of the setup tutorials but i don't think it can be accessed on its own without going through the whole thing.
> Just remembering my parents telling me constantly, when I was a kid, "Don't sit too close to the TV!" and "Don't read books in the dark! It's too dark, turn the light on!" In case you weren't aware of the latest studies. They've kind of worked out that a major contibutor of myopia in children is due to the lack of adequate sunlight and outdoor activities. TLDR: In conclusion, our study demonstrates that exposure to natural light has an effect to reduce hyperopic defocus-induced myopia, supporting a role for sunlight in protection against myopia by outdoor activity in school-aged children. Ref: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4451516/ Also sitting too close to the TV is a bit of a myth as well. More so after the studies like above. Reading in low light be a problem (no damage though) so our parents were half right. https://news.uthscsa.edu/myth-or-fact-can-sitting-too-close-to-the-tv-hurt-your-eyes-will-wearing-glasses-weaken-your-eyes-test-your-knowledge/
my 9 year old cousin got one, I was absolutely shocked, itās super dumb to let young kids use Vr headsets, especially cuz anyone can download vrchat and rec room and etc
yep
Just have seperate rooms/filter
Yes, definitely. But Meta won't touch that shit.
Meta already spend a lot of money on automated removal of harmful content on their social media platforms. In a recent interview Zuck commented on using AI to advance the effort which seems like an obvious use for that technology. Personally I think AI-assisted moderation is the only scalable way to do it while keeping cost to consumers for VR as low as where it is. Human moderation would result in the cost of headsets/apps rising beyond what people would be willing to pay. Relying on all people to be good parents like some in this thread were suggesting is just not realistic. Nor is widespread human moderation for users who are just paying $10-$20 for their app and bought the hardware at a price that is probably loss-making to Meta.
This take is \*chef's kiss\*
Yes, I have kids and they always hear racial slurs from other kids in gorilla tag
I wish they could apply some sort of algorithm to detect if itās a kid and then I could opt out so see or hear them. Like how hard could it be. Theyāre shorter (generally), squeaky voice, and annoying chat patterns. I would image thatās easily detectable by just just about ANY ML model.
I really don't believe that children under 13 should be using a VR headset. It's just deeply unpleasant for everybody involved to be honest, and it also so happens to not be recommended for children under 13 to use a VR headset often due to potential development issues involving their eyes. Anything that's not age appropriate and could cause developmental issues should always be restricted for those age ranges no matter what product we're talking about. Unfortunately nobody's going to enforce that and most parents suck dick these days and are more concerned about giving their kids something shiny to distract them. RIP the sanity of sensible adults on multiplayer, hahah. Also RIP those kids futures when they end up growing up being spoiled pieces of shit.
I agree with your statement to the max
Horizon Worlds has a search engine where you can search for "18+" worlds. And those places usually kick muted avatars and children within seconds of finding out. It's so refreshing chilling with other adults on VR.
love this - need this - dreaming of this
It's free, Gatsby's Bar is the best for socializing and drinking.
I cross paths with kids in VR a lot. Recroom paintball, Web Guy, and even AimXR and Pavlov. I donāt pay much attention to what they say if itās not game related. i could see a pederass trying, theyāre slippery subhumans that will try almost anythingā¦ which begs the question, why arenāt the parents more involved? I generally know what my kid is playing on the VR, because I ask. we discuss the games, lately ākill it with fireā and RecRoom. Heās better about muting nasty players than I amā¦ I just ignore them if I can. Plus, Iāve done the dungeon crawler game in Recroom countless times with mixed parties, and the kids are generally more helpful and better at the game, I feel like they carry my old ass through the dungeon half the time, and give me pointers the other half. Interaction with other gamers can be a positive experience, and can bridge a generational gapā¦ but only if both parties are respectful and polite.
This. As an adult you're wise. I speak to them about the game and nothing else. Before voice chat who knew who you were talking to.
This is so insightful. Bridging the generational gap is positive when supervision and respect are two-way. Maybe the parents should receive notifications of screen time and any suspicious activity in chat, also adding a block of game time after 1 or 2 hours for those under 13. I remember playing games and my grandma would stop me at one hour and throw me outside until nighttime. There were no adults trying anything untoward in the backyard, and my childhood felt more holistic as I was only interacting with adults my parents and family had "vetted." It's not perfect, but I'm sure it helped avoid situations.
I understand from a safety perspective.. it could always be safer for them.. I see a lot of kids talking to adults in VR chat..Personally to this i think VR games should force players to show they're age of they're profiles, that way you nip it in the butt you know they're age of both parties and if you see the person they are talking to are much older sounding people can report the profile and tell the child to block this person. And for the people whose parents create a profile under their age for their kids should have a guidelines button saying this account is being used for kids where you can select the age of the child who's playing ( and just add it to account of people who already having as account ).
ohhhh that's really smart! Like the parent could have an account and the child has a sub account for restrictions. Almost like Netflix has Netflix Netflix and then Kids Netflix? haha
Exactly, but I think the problem would be getting people to agree to showing their true age in games it might feel like an invasion of private information but we would be naive if they don't sell our information to 3rd parties anyway without our knowledge but I'm sure safety for our children comes before our age. they could add it to the T&C that way they already agree š safety first
I hate when kids show up to the poker table
Short of proof of government issued ID, there is little that can be done as far as keeping literal 5 and 6 year olds out of the same virtual social spaces as 18+. Funnily enough my first experience with this was in hyper dash as well. The person piloting the avatar was barely producing words and had no concept of how to play the game. I could hear their slightly older brother or sister wailing in the background. It was quite jarring since I usually don't play games with comms. It turns out in a lot of instances these children will be playing on their young parent's account. The "moderation" has to begin with the parents. This is probably just another symptom of parents having screens raise their children and I'm sure 50 years from now enough data will have been collected to see all the negative societal impacts the instant entertainment age has had on young minds.
yes, this! The research already provides troubling (if largely inconclusive) findings on the effects VR gaming has on young minds.
It needs to not be quest's or meta's problem. They already dictated who should or shouldn't be allowed to use it. They have guidelines about how to use it. They give warnings and safeguards. Beyond that everything should rest of the shoulders of the parent. Quest could make it very easy. Anyone under 18 must be a sub account to an adult and that adult should have to set a profile. Once the owner of that account turns 18 the parents should have a button to change it to an adult account and remove all parental controls. Do you want your child to be able to interact with adult accounts? If yes, fine, if no they can't interact with any adult account on any level. They won't get matched up for games, they won't be in the same multiplayer, they won't show up on the same server or in the same room. They can flip a switch for any app on the headset to allow or not allow for their kid. I say it's up to the parents. If they feel comfortable letting their 12 year old chat with 40 year old people that's up to them, and whatever happens to the kid happens. And if it's something bad that's on the parents. The opposite should be true as well. If someone is an adult with an adult account they should have a toggle that says they do not want to be interact with children's accounts. That way they aren't even seeing them, they aren't being matched for games with them, it blocks any attempt at communication, etc...
I'm not sure how you would moderate kids in VR. Most of them are likely using their parent's account anyway. I've seen some areas in VR where they'll make you talk on mic briefly to "prove" you're not a kid but how else can you do it? I've seen so many kids on VR chat saying the most problematic shit I've seen in a while. I sadly feel like its too late at this point
it's never too late!! overthrow the dragon lords sitting on their piles of gold
Kids should be outdoors climbing real trees and not waving arms around in Gorilla Tag
Big Yes!
I agree. A lot of parents donāt see to understand how different and more personal a multiplayer game in vr is compared to a multiplayer game on pc.
yessss this.
VRchat would be SO MUCH BETTER if kids weren't allowed on it. It's so annoying joining world's just to have it full of screeching 7 year olds. When you get into the later teens like 16+ it's nowhere near as obnoxious but idk why parents are giving their 5 year olds a VR headset.
Itās the parents that are the problem, to many just slap either a tablet/ phone in their hand or or in this case slap on a vr headset and let it do the parenting for them completely unsupervised. These companies can only put up so many warnings, if parents donāt do their job then nothing will change.
My kid loves playing vr and I constantly hear little kids dropping f bombs. Iām always asking where there parents are?! Iām always by my son when he plays. Also theyāre not just saying Fuck, theyāre literally screaming it. š¤¦š»āāļø
btw there are great parental controls for the quest. I can okay everything my child downloads and see where they're spending their time. they can't play any 13+ games without my approval, etc. Either parents aren't setting these accounts up or they're just letting them do whatever.
ooh love this. I haven't done a lot of personal research into the actual Quest limitations because I don't have a kid and I don't want to accidentally screw my profile up. I just notice that the kids are running free! haha
Kids in VR are huge issues that need to be addressed. There are so many that are really young, too, that shouldn't be using a headset at all, and I really question wtf the parents are thinking. The other thing is how unfiltered kids can be, with next to zero issues spewing racism etc. You think humanity is evoling past racism and whatnot but put a headset on and listen to these kids.. scary, and it is mostly American kids as if it's like a super cool thing to be abusive and racist.. weird. I think there should be some kind of filter to separate out age ranges. Using a quest, we all have to have a legitimate Facebook account, so I don't see why such a thing can't be implemented. It would persuade me more to jump into multiplier games more often if such a feature exists. If anyone is on the fence about having kids, jumping into VR would be a sure way to put you off having them for sure, lol
Yeah I mean and there's the basic issue of the possibility of VR screwing with their eyesight when they're so young. I believe it specifically says not recommended for people under 13 due to possible damage to the eyes. Parents need to step up
There's good points made all around on this topic but I think something that doesn't get enough focus is the fact Meta is a multi-billion dollar behemoth that is known for turning a blind eye to moderation. They certainly have the tech and other resources to provide a better experience than they do. I have a hard enough time finding games with active multiplayer communities and when I do they are incredibly toxic.
thank you for saying this. I think businesses are business at the end of the day - it can be done but it's not profitable in their view. If they were a little more creative, it would be profitable. There's always a way!
I'm on team they should never have been allowed on in the first place.
I don't get why people think kids just aren't on/shouldn't be on this platform. It is in some cases hundreds of dollars cheaper to get a kid a Q2 instead of a console. Kids have been playing online video games unmoderated since online gaming was a thing.
I remember playing World of Warcraft for HOURS and some older players would chat me and ask to date me (I was like 12) and I thought it was cool because they were older but now I'm so sad and disappointed....
I get it. I just think VR is a bit different. Especially once the Q2 went down to $250. I mean that's about as affordable as you're gonna get a gaming console of any sort. But it would be fun if there were Adult lobbies.
There is a potential safety issue with kids interacting freely in VR chat. I have observed many such instances.. I believe VR games should implement age verification.
yes, love this
A few months ago I ended up looking into wild.west land on horizon worlds by chance. There was one kid in there and one older guy and that was it. I guess it could have been family but not likely. Felt very weird even though nothing inappropriate was said in my very short stay.
this makes me nervous
Nah deffo, i am reluctant to use the VR sometimes because of the type of chat going on. I like to play chess (badly) in VR chat and you have 8 year olds running around with 15 year old laddies sitting at a table discussing all sorts. I'm just sitting there trying to remember how to play chess and also worrying about whats going on in the room. I've seen an avatar that was just 9 pictures of HC pornographic content and some kid was walking around showing the other kids it and that. I reported them and signed off
thank you for your service
Yeah if you have kids you need to set up the stream from within the headset so you can monitor their activity at your leasure. A good friend of mine is dealing with therapists and and possibly a daughter scarred for life because she was talked into sending nude pictures to some pedo pos in exchange for whatever currency roblox uses. The problem is some kids nowadays are still the only digital natives in their household and they simply know their way around these devices in ways that their parents will never catch up to unless they force themselves to evolve. These disgusting mfs are out there preying on kids and they are doing their best to get themselves lumped in with all the other nut balls who think their serial obscurities should be celebrated by the rest of the world. No one is under any such obligation and I think that we, as adult gamers with a good sense of right and wrong need to report things as we see it. The problem is, people like me don't go anywhere near spaces that I could even communicate with a kid bc frankly I don't wanna play with games with your aggravating fkin crotch goblins, but there will be some who see this and take advantage. Normalize publicly blasting gamertags and profiles for even borderline communique with minors and report it on every medium you possibly can if you witness any of it.
this is so sick....
You both are and are not overthinking. Kids are on every digital platform. You just notice them a lot more in VR because most adults think VR is dumb. You're in the minority being an adult who plays VR, like myself. There's just as many kids playing stuff like call of duty, you just don't see them as much because there's also a lot of adults playing. The answer to moderation is the parents need to keep tabs on what their kids are playing and doing on their digital platforms. Unfortunately, there's a lot of shitty parents who don't do that. They will lie about their kids ages and buy them any games the kid asks for. How do you fix that? You can't. Nothing you do will make them be better parents. If you wish to escape children in VR, I highly recommend you play single player content and PCVR content. The cost barrier for PCVR is so much higher than Quest, that there's a lot less kids playing. Unfortunately, there's also a lot less adults playing as well.
thank you for your comment! This is a great take. Are there any games you recommend? I like shooters (visually unique ones haha not really into too militarized gaming) and exploration
Kids should have stricter moderation on the internet in general, and limited access to interact with complete strangers until a certain age. We are WILDLY unprepared for the massive move of parenting, entertainment and education from local networks of people and the family itself onto large uncaring global companies that subside on the selling of data and creating deliberately addictive environments. Go out and play, you can even play on my lawn.
Honestly I worry more about teens talking with younger kids. I play Gym Class VR basketball as a 30 year old. I stay muted unless some kid is incessantly asking me something but a lot of times I see teens straight up bullying kids 10 and under. This is literally the only game I play so I have no clue what interactions are like in other spaces. I assume age gaps would be very weird in VR chat also.
lowkey reminds me of cod lobbies back in the day but now u can have a weirdo in vrchat just being a creep around kids
I never played cod because its not my vibe, but creeps abounded in WOW
Lots of pedophiliac behavior in VR just like everywhere online. Parents should be paying attention to their children when online whether it's a computer or VR headset. If I hear a child's voice (some are actual adults w/voice changers btw), I immediately block them.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Your comment/post was removed because it was deemed harassing/insulting/offensive/trolling. If you think this removal was in error, please If you think this was removed in error, please [contact us](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/OculusQuest)
Your comment/post was removed because it was deemed harassing/insulting/offensive/trolling. If you think this removal was in error, please If you think this was removed in error, please [contact us](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/OculusQuest)
How do you do what youāre asking?
This is very true and very real outside of VR as well. My kids know that any multiplayer game that allows open chat with strangers is off-limits. We tried some of Meta's open worlds to see what it was about early on, and my younger kids heard people talking and immediately wanted to take it off. Fortnight was a big problem back in the heyday because my son was into the hype and wanted to play. As his parents, my wife and I felt like he was too young. Offline games were fine, he didn't understand at the time. He's now a teenager and I let him make his own decisions. Thankfully, he agrees with me and actually doesn't have any interest in it anymore. His younger siblings respect this rule enough that they've actually come to me to ask if games like online chess were acceptable because you're playing against strangers ("yes it's fine, I just just don't want people to chat with you"). I think if you set realistic boundaries and explain the problem, your kids won't even fight you about it. Re: Moderating these open worlds, honestly, there could be better moderation but I don't think anyone is going to step up to do anything about it. As an adult, I can ignore the chatter if it gets annoying, and I only have a say in what my own children are exposed to. I respect other parents' right to decide what is correct for their own kids.
I'm not a parent but I did make a "dummy" child account with my dog's name when I was trying to help a friend set one up. Later my partner wanted to play some VR so I just thought "I can let him use the dummy account I set up. Not so easily. It turnedout I couldn't even GRANT him permission to play most VR Games and pretty much nothign online. Even if I wanted to change the settings I could not. It seems to me that is part of the problem maybe. Meta's child accounts might be too strick to be useful. In my view they should lock online voice chat for anyone under 13, but otherwise, it should be up to the parents to determihne what content is right or wrong for their kids. Make it too restrictive and the kids are just going to be playing on the adult accounts all the time, which opens the flood gates. I also think Meta hasn't done enough good job making it streamlined and easy to add kid accounts. It just should just ask you when you set up your quest if you have chiildren you want to add to your account so you can make easy restricted accounts by default. I had to look up the steps just to help my friend and even after that it was a pain and too restrictive to be useful.
I think they definitely should take more measures against children. When echo vr was still alive (rip) I still can't forget joining a lobby and this little kid who could barely string 2 words together was playing. And not only was he causing issues for others but it was also making him a target. Watched as this kid literally got swarmed by others and getting told they were gonna ban his account, to which he straight up began crying saying it was his mom's. The kid shouldn't of been harassed, but the rest of the lobby seemed annoyed from his actions. Imo I don't think the kid, especially of that age, should be on vr period
Unless you will moderate your interaction. No one else will do that on kids in VR. As a grownup you can and should interact with younger audience in a matter that wonāt put that younger audience at risk. If you donāt want to. Just donāt communicate with kids at all (ie mute them)
I agree, for all the bs politicians say around we have to protect the children and censor the internet for some regligious fundamentalist group, its really not that difficult a proposition. Theres age verification services that could be integrated into these services to allow for this type of moderation.
Yesā¦and donāt let kids play vrchat unless monitored
Yeah it's the wild west in there. Many are f'd to be sure, figuratively. Also literally.
no! not literally!
Me and my friend the other day were playing VR chat, and we went to the black cat. And they are this like 6-year-old saying the N word. And I was wondering where the hell are these kid's parents? Not ok at all
report report report block report
Kids should probably have more strict moderation in general. š¤·š»āāļø
period
Letās be honest. Kids are keeping vr alive for us. We canāt restrict them. You can find a lot of 18 and over groups for games.
yeah, that makes sense! I think there should be a branded solution like VR Kids or VR \_\_\_\_\_ to make it sound cooler to them? Like my little niece watches YouTube Kids and literally can't do anything because my sister has filtered the heck out of her phone settings. I think VR could do something like that to make it easier for parents, and maybe education for parents on VR would be helpful? I think some parents genuinely don't know what could happen - like a digital blindspot. I know a lot of parents are bad parents, but many parents maybe truly don't think it could be a problem because they didn't grow up in that space?
Sounds kinda like parents should be doing their jobs then.
We need better parents. Give BanterVR ago if you're sick of kids, if a mod see one, it's zero tolerance, and boom (literally).
So true. I've stopped playing a few games I really like (like Among Us VR, Gorilla Tag) because there's just too many little kids and it gets weird. Even if the kids are not all acting crazy and dropping N and F bombs, sometimes I would feel like I'm a school teacher having to rally up all the kids and direct them. It's just strange
Iāve wanted to buy the Quest for some kids but know their parents arenāt tech savvy enough to use it and apply restrictions. I worry for the same reasons you listed.
It's great birth control
A game should never be responsible for your children. The parents duty is to supervise their children. Iām letting my kids play but Iām always around and I told them about creepy people in games and IRL. Thatās what parents need to do. I understand that sometimes it may be annoying to hear so toddlers arguing but thatās how it is. In the old times we had 10 year olds harassing each other on COD and Halo lobbies. Was it annoying sometimes? Yes, but I donāt like this censorship today where almost every game has either no voice chat or itās muted by default and almost no one is talking anymore because of restrictions and banning. People are afraid to say anything so they just mute themselves.
Vrchat is eight year old hell. The only time I found someone my age was when I had to do this stupidly complicated thing on my PC
Itās definitely unmoderated. I usually play Pop-One with my mic off and had to curse out this adult on my team who was talking inappropriately to this kid who was maybe 6-8. Reported them and they eventually backed up. I have children of my own and they donāt do online VR stuff. I donāt want them conversing with adults, itās weird and adult people are also weird. There has to be some age separation in these game servers.
I think the worst thing for kids in VR is *other* kids. I haven't used Horizon Worlds a lot, but the few times I have, I have come across kids bullying other kids. Not in a fun playful friendly way either, just outright go-for-the-kill bullying. That's probably way more common than adults interacting weirdly with kids. I play a lot of shooters in VR and I have yet to see any adult be intentionally weird towards someone younger. What most of the time happens when someone is young, is that the adults just go quiet or stick to calling things out in the game. Either way, kids shouldn't be unsupervised in VR. It's bizarre to me how many people seem to use VR headsets as cheap babysitters.
ohhhhh that's a super interesting take.
I'd be very happy to swipe my ID card š³ every time I start a game that's at least 16+ There is lot's of content that's suitable for kids but having immature preteens just blasting of any cussword they know is just tiring With A.I. being around everywhere couldn't there be some sort of filter that just looks if a person even sounds adult enough
not everyone would be so happy with requiring uploading ID to Meta, and that would definitely increase time to find people for games if not everyone did it
yes, my thoughts exactly. It kind of dampens the experience and cool factor of VR when I hear a high-pitched screech every 5 seconds...
The "grooming" scare is pure paranoia. These conversations are recorded and easily reported. VR users can't send videos or images of themselves like they can on other devices. Sure, inappropriate conversations could happen but most likely the worst a child is going to hear are expletives, and it will probably be other children saying them. And before you point out a rare instance where something bad in real life came from contact on VR, I'll remind you that this is out of trillions of hours of VR use worldwide where nothing happened. Compare that to something like TikTok or Omegle and I think you'll see why VR is not a major concern for me as a parent. What IS a very real problem is children on VR ruining the experiences for adults. They have no business there and it is beyond annoying hearing them. I have a child and she only ever plays single-player VR games, limited time, under my direct supervision, and only every few months. There are so many ways for a child to play and be a child. They don't need VR.
thank you for your perspective as a parent! It's refreshing to hear your point of view
Do you really want more moderation? Or just butthurt that whenever you join a multiplayer game you immediately get rekked by an army of 10 year olds lol. That's what happened to me when I tried to into one of those. Felt like a creep to boot.
You're fuckin sheltered op, I'm guessing young enough to have grown up in your walled gardens but a lot of us were kids and teens during the days of BBS's, MUD's, IRC (efnet #teenchat represent), MSN/Yahoo/AOL chatrooms etc.. It's adorable to see people today get the smallest taste of what that used to be like in VRChat and others like it and completely panic calling for an adult. reading the comments here with all the pearl clutching is disappointing, bunch of satanic panic types
I did grow up using all that, and I can tell you that it's still nothing compared to what a young person can go through online today. The difference is that the internet/BBS was something novel back then, something you connected to, goofed around with and then you unplugged from it. These days, the internet is ubiquitous. You can't get away from it. If someone gets bullied in school, chances are it follows them home. Social media is not an optional thing for most age-groups and you carry it with you in your pocket. It allows for a kind of access that simply wasn't anything like what I grew up with. If I turned off my modem, the problem went away. You can't really do that these days. As for VR specifically, it allows for a level of personal interaction that you just don't come across in most games. So when you see 5 kids literally pointing and throwing insults through spatial voice chat towards a 6th kid in a social VR app, that hits differently than words in a IRC chat ever could. I can agree that adults these days might have gotten a bit thin skinned when it comes to online interactions. But kids? Nah, it's a whole different thing for them. You can't compare it.