Common Sense is the leading
independent nonproft organization
dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world
of media and technology. We empower
parents, teachers, and policymakers by
providing unbiased information, trusted
advice, and innovative tools to help them
harness the power of media and technology
as a positive force in all kids’ lives.
commonsense
Friends,
We live in a time of the most accelerated technological change, unlike anything we’ve
seen before, with new marvels materializing every day. Today, one of those marvels is
virtual reality (VR). Though nascent, VR has the potential to become a major force in
entertainment, education, and health care.
Here at Common Sense, we’re committed to keeping ahead of — and truly
understanding — burgeoning trends like VR. This research report, which includes a
survey conducted in collaboration with SurveyMonkey about parents’ attitudes about
VR, represents an early step in our efforts to understand its potential impact on our
kids’ cognitive, social, and physical well-being, as well as its potential to shape young
people’s perspectives.
What’s unique about VR is the
intensity
of the experiences it mediates. Research —
including that of this paper’s co-author Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford
University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab — has found that VR is one of the most
intense mediums we’ve encountered.
As a result, many educators are excited about the potential for VR to encourage
prosocial behavior among younger children, and 62 percent of parents believe that
VR will enhance educational experiences for their kids. Also, research fnds that, for
older children who are beginning to develop the ability to understand the perspectives
of others, VR can help diminish racial bias and encourage empathy. Further, clinical
researchers are looking into the potential for VR experiences to help distract from pain
and promote rehabilitation for treatable conditions.
It is critical for parents and educators to be aware of VR’s powerful effects, as we still
don’t know enough about how this highly immersive medium affects the developing
brain. Indeed, more than half of parents surveyed said they are at least “somewhat
concerned” that their children will experience negative health effects while using VR.
We also know that, based on early research on the impact of VR on children’s health,
there is a need for caution when it comes to its use by young children.
Because VR is in its infancy, we have a unique opportunity to stay on top of this
technological wave before it overwhelms us. At Common Sense, we plan to review new
VR content through our Common Sense Media platform and to guide educators on
safe, appropriate, and impactful applications in the classroom. We’re also committed
to keeping you informed with reports, such as this one, that synthesize the most
signifcant research on the topic to date. We hope you fnd useful insights in our report,
and we look forward to working with you while we continue to watch VR come into
better focus in the months and years ahead.
James P. Steyer,
founder and CEO
A LETTER FROM OUR FOUNDER
When I frst started researching virtual reality in the late 1990s, we never thought about kids in
their living rooms. Indeed, VR was like an MRI machine at a doctor’s offce: It took up a massive
room, cost more than most homes, and needed a very skilled technician to operate it.
But everything has changed. The big technology companies have dedicated their brains and
muscle to making VR ubiquitous, and systems that would have cost more than my car a few
years back now cost less than a typical television set. That’s led to a profusion of VR technology
and its entry into the mainstream. Conservatively, there are more than 10 million VR systems
foating around the United States, and the actual number is probably substantially higher.
This expansion of VR is creating a very real set of questions for parents: How does VR differ from
other media What effect, if any, does VR have on neurological development in children Are
there cognitive repercussions of prolonged immersion in VR experiences How does the nature
of the content presented in VR change perspectives and behaviors among kids
These are just some of the questions I’ve spent the past two decades exploring as a researcher
and, more recently, as a parent. I have a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old, and even though I teach
about media and psychology at Stanford University, I continually struggle with questions such as,
“How close is too close to the TV” and “How many episodes of PBS programming per day is too
many” Now layer VR on top of those questions, and we fnd ourselves in a foreign landscape.
Since I’m the founding director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, parents often think I
have answers to these vexing questions. The truth is, when it comes to VR and kids, we just don’t
know all that much. As a community, we need more research to understand these effects.
In the meantime, we do have some clues we can offer, and they are summarized in this report.
One of those clues comes from Jakki Bailey, a colleague at Stanford who has dedicated her
career to this topic and has run hundreds of 3- to 6-year-olds through high-end VR systems. Her
preliminary fnding is that the illusion of VR is more effective on young children than on adults.
Also, the effects of VR tend to be magnifed compared to those of traditional media such as
television. An experience in VR — which perceptually surrounds people and for which people use
natural body movements to interact with the scene — tends to be more impactful than a similar
experience using other media.
For children, moderation should prevail. Instead of hours of use, which might apply to other
screens, think in terms of minutes. Most VR is meant to be done on the fve- to 10-minute scale.
As far as content goes, a good rule is, if you wouldn’t want your children to live with the memory
of the event in the real world, then don’t have them do it in VR. Traveling to the moon is fne, but
scary experiences will stay with them. And think about safety. By defnition, VR blocks out the
real world. Watch your children around sharp edges, pets, and walls.
The good news is, VR is super fun. The vast majority of the hundreds of kids Professor Bailey
has observed have been thrilled and delighted. Nobody got sick, nobody got hurt, and to date no
parents have reported any ill effects. But the kids were meeting Grover from
Sesame Street
, and
they were supervised in VR sessions that lasted only about fve minutes.
It seems with VR, a little bit goes a long way. So, until research yields more clues on the effects of
VR on children, common sense should prevail.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT KIDS AND VR
(AND WHAT WE DON’T)
Jeremy Bailenson,
founder,
Virtual Human Interaction Lab,
Stanford University
Jeremy Bailenson is the founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. His lab builds and studies
systems that allow people to meet in virtual space and explores the changes in the nature of social interaction. His most
recent research focuses on how VR can transform education, environmental conservation, empathy, and health. In his latest
book,
Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do
, Bailenson provides an
in-depth discussion of how to avoid the downsides of VR while maximizing its beneficial applications.
common sense is grateful for the generous support
and underwriting that funded this research report:
Jennifer Caldwell and John H.N. FisherEva and Bill Price
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key Findings . . . . .