How wise would it be to demo VR to an 8 year old?

Question

My son is 8 years old and obsessed with the concept of virtual reality even though he has never experienced it. He is a huge gamer, has developed many fairly complex games in Scratch and built impressive structures in Minecraft. He knows I have a quest 2 and a day doesn't pass that he doesn't beg me to allow him just a few minutes to experience it. And of course I would love to.However most organizations recommend not allowing children under 12 access to VR and I generally agree with this. Its getting harder to say no though as he has a few friends that are allowed access to their parents VR headsets, albeit for very limited periods.I'm wondering what the wise course of action would be and if there are any risks for an 8 year old to play VR once off for 30 mins. I'm hoping this would satisfy his curiosity to the point that he can go back to enjoying his non-VR games until he is 12+ and mitigates the risk of him with becoming totally obsessed with the concept and doing it without supervision behind my back at his friends houses.Is anyone else in a similar position? What have you done?

ggm · Accepted Answer

In general, vision development in the young worries me. There are reasons that a life held mostly indoors causes more myopia. I would worry that forcing a young pair of eyes to use the artificial perspective vision effect inherent in VR alters their eye development for focus adaptation for near and distant objects.
Thats an ill informed worry, based on my belief without evidence. I'd expect a person who understand brain/sight/development issues to correct me on that.
I also worry about latent epilepsy triggers, and trip risks.
As to effect on their mental health, sleeping, behaviour I can't comment. I do know game exposure in young minds causes problems for some, but overall is now held to be net beneficial statistically to development (maybe?)

dementis · Answer

"Forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest"I think the better question is how do you turn your child's curiosity about VR into a positive learning moment and foster their creativity at the same time.https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-ways-kill-kids-curiosity-me...

themodelplumber · Answer

> However most organizations recommend not allowing children under 12 access to VRWhy? If your child is different from you in that they need more dopaminergic experiences in order to access their best cognitive tools--just as one common example--VR would seem a de facto therapeutic option...

How wise would it be to demo VR to an 8 year old?

"Forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest"
I think the better question is how do you turn your child's curiosity about VR into a positive learning moment and foster their creativity at the same time.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-ways-kill-kids-curiosity-me...

> However most organizations recommend not allowing children under 12 access to VR
Why? If your child is different from you in that they need more dopaminergic experiences in order to access their best cognitive tools--just as one common example--VR would seem a de facto therapeutic option...