Enhancing parental control features.

Designers should enhance VR parental control features to help parents manage screen time, content access, and safeguard children’s overall health, due to persistent parental concerns.

About this paper

The author conducted a study involving 55 parents and 67 children to uncover ethical concerns and design considerations for VR usage among children aged 7-13.

Their findings provide valuable insights for the HCI community and suggest balanced VR practices that account for both benefits and potential risks for young users and their families.

Here are some methods used in this study:

Interview Study Survey Study

Which part of the paper did the design guideline come from?

“When asked who should be the decision maker for VR's usage, both parents and children believed that parents should ultimately decide if their children are permitted to engage with VR, while also safeguarding them from its potential negative impacts. This responsibility, emerging from the uncertainties linked to VR usage, underlines key considerations in designing and implementing VR for youth populations of parental supervision and control. Some strategies for parental supervision in VR (...)” (Section 4.3: Key Considerations for Designing and Implementing VR for Youth Populations in Various Contexts (RQ2))

Jin, Q., Kawas, S., Arora, S., Yuan, Y., & Yarosh, S. (2024). Is Your Family Ready for VR? Ethical Concerns and Considerations in Children’s VR Usage. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference.

Inspiration and scope

This paper focused on characteristics of parents and children in relation to VR usage and potential negative impacts.

You are designing for lonely children, aiming for them to make friends through a VR game. Your design context and the paper’s context both consider emotional and psychological well-being of children, particularly regarding their VR interaction. The paper’s focus on potential negative impacts can guide making your game safe and supportive of positive mental health.

Also, they both aim to create a positive user experience that ensures healthy engagement with VR. Insights from the paper on what makes a safe and positive VR experience can help enhance the game’s ability to attract and retain young users, making it enjoyable and beneficial for children’s social interactions.

Leveraging these similarities, consider designing a VR game with guided social interaction features, like structured activities or quests requiring teamwork. This approach supports developing friendships among children, creating a psychologically enriching environment that nurtures mental health and emotional well-being.

Your input

  • What: Design a VR game for the children, trying to encourage them to make friends through playing the game
  • Who: Children who feel lonely, their friends may have moved to another areas
  • Design stage: Research, Ideation, Evaluation

Understanding users

The following user needs and pain points may apply to your design target as well:

Encouraging Real-Life Social Interactions

Design features that encourage children to engage in real-life social interactions along with VR gameplay can enhance their social skills and emotional well-being. This balance prevents potential isolation and fosters healthy relationship building.

Parental Supervision Tools

Integrating comprehensive and user-friendly tools for parents to supervise and control their children's VR activities will build trust and ensure a safe gaming environment. These tools can include activity monitoring, content filtering, and adjustable settings for different age groups.

Design ideas

Consider the following components for your design:

1

Integrate guided quests that require collaboration from multiple players.

2

Implement robust parental control and moderation tools to monitor interactions.

3

Incorporate in-game tools for conflict resolution and positive reinforcement.

Methods for you

Consider the following method(s) used in this paper for your design work:

Anticipatory Approach

Using an anticipatory approach can help in understanding the potential future implications of VR technology on children, both positive and negative, aiding in more informed design choices. When using this approach, it is crucial to think broadly about scenarios that encompass both utopian and dystopian outcomes and ensure they're relatable to the children's experiences.

Semi-Structured Interviews

Conducting semi-structured interviews allows designers to gain nuanced insights into children's and parents' perspectives on VR usage, which can inform better design decisions. When implementing this methodology, it's critical to ensure questions are age-appropriate for children and to consider both structured and open-ended questions for deeper exploration.

Metrics for you

Consider the following metric(s) used in this paper to evaluate your design work:

Survey Responses

Using survey responses helps to quantitatively measure participants’ attitudes toward different scenarios. When analyzing survey results, be mindful of the variations in agreement levels among children and parents to draw insights relevant to your design goals.

Qualitative Interviews

Qualitative interviews allow for a deeper understanding of the concerns and experiences of children and parents using VR. Keep in mind the context of social isolation and emotional health to create more meaningful interactions among the children.

[Figure 11] From this figure, you can understand how VR can foster family interaction and cohesion, which may inspire ideas for creating a VR game that encourages children to make friends through shared experiences.