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A new warning has been issued about the potential dangers of virtual reality headsets to teens and pre-teens who wear them. Research shows that most parents aren't aware that strangers can interact with their children who use this technology.
Including pedophiles.
Be informed, not misled.
CBN News is reporting that "Virtual Reality involves strapping a headset to the face so the person wearing it can no longer see or hear the real world. This totally immersive experience can often feel more authentic than anything on a TV, laptop, or phone. Users often create an avatar, or character, that interacts with others, operated by people they often don't know. These avatars can speak in a disguised voice, corner, and touch other players."
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is deeply involved in virtual reality. Two former employees, Cayce Savage and Jason Sattizahn, recently testified at a U.S. Senate hearing about the company's research into the risks associated with this alternate reality.
Via CBN:
I quickly became aware that it is not uncommon for children in VR to experience bullying, sexual assault, to be solicited for nude photographs, sexual acts by pedophiles, and to be regularly exposed to mature content, like gambling and violence, and to participate in adult experiences like strip clubs and watching pornography with strangers," Savage testified.
In an exchange with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sattizahn described shocking details.
"There will also be instances that we have seen where you can hear people sexually pleasuring themselves transmitted over audio in a spatial sense as you are being surrounded and brigaded and being harassed so it's not just simple statements, it is actually the transmission of the motion and the audio of sex acts itself," Sattizahn said.
"And so that is what causes children to have the physiological and psychological response as if it were happening to them in the real world?" asked Sen. Blackburn.
"Yes, exactly," Sattizahn responded. "Visually and auditorily, it feels real."
The whistleblowers accused Meta of suppressing studies into the extent to which VR can harm teenagers and even younger kids.
"When my colleague showed research of children being psychologically threatened by physical harm by strangers online," Sattizahn said, "Meta not only restricted internal sharing, but manipulated reports showing any emotional damage."
Christians are expressing concern. But we're not the only ones who are concerned.
Reuters says "Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META.O), opens a new tab, puts profit from its virtual-reality platform over safety, two former researchers told a Senate panel on Tuesday."
Former Meta user experience researcher Cayce Savage said the company shut down internal research showing Meta knew children were using its VR products and being exposed to sexually explicit material.
"Meta cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the safety or use of its products," Savage said at the hearing before the Senate subcommittee on privacy and technology.
Meta has come under fire from members of Congress in recent weeks, after Reuters exclusively reported on an internal policy document that permitted the company’s chatbots to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.”
"Does it surprise you that they would allow their chatbot to engage in these conversations with children?" Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, asked former Meta Reality Labs researcher Jason Sattizahn, who also testified at the hearing on Tuesday.
"No, not at all," he said.
Meta has previously said that the examples reported by Reuters were inconsistent with the company's policies and had been removed.
But they're not. And they haven't been removed.
The fact that Meta’s AI chatbots flirt or engage in sexual roleplay with teenagers has been reported previously by the Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company has reported that some of Meta’s sexually suggestive chatbots have resembled children.
The Washington Post posted this on X:
Company lawyers for Meta intervened to shape research that might have shed light on risks in virtual reality, four current and former staffers have told Congress.
An internal Meta report on child safety research said that in general, parents and teens feared grooming by strangers in virtual reality — but the report did not include one German teen’s assertion that his younger sibling actually had been targeted. The report said that adults had sexually propositioned the boy’s little brother, who was younger than 10, numerous times, but after an interview, one person overseeing research ordered the recording of the teen’s claims deleted, along with all written records of his comments.
The report is part of a trove of documents from inside Meta that was recently disclosed to Congress by two current and two former employees who allege that Meta suppressed research that might have illuminated potential safety risks to children and teens on the company’s virtual reality devices and apps — an allegation the company has vehemently denied. After leaked Meta studies led to congressional hearings in 2021, the company deployed its legal team to screen, edit and sometimes veto internal research about youth safety in VR, according to a joint statement the current and former employees submitted to Congress in May.
Meta denies the allegations.
Takeaway.
Christmas is a matter of weeks away. Many parents and grandparents will soon be looking for the "perfect" gift for kids and grandkids.
The virtual reality headsets offer a unique experience, but lurking in the shadows are life-altering experiences that children should not be exposed to. Pedophiles are also lurking in the shadows.
Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of Enough is Enough, a kids' online safety organization, told CBN News that young people are especially vulnerable to the dangers of virtual reality.
"Their prefrontal cortexes of their brains are not fully developed yet. They're immersed in this new world," she said.
She advises parents to warn their children about this modern-day "stranger danger."
"The thing is, you have to teach your kids that you cannot recognize a disguised predator. They pretend to be somebody that they're not," Hughes said.
She said technology companies need to implement safeguards, which is why Hughes supports the Kids Online Safety Act.
"It basically will hold these platforms accountable," she said. "They have got to mitigate harm to kids."
The bill is currently in the Senate. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said it's facing tough opposition.
"Meta has hired armies of lawyers and lobbyists, spent millions of dollars, to kill the Online Safety Act," he said. "It's dangerous for their business model, even if their practices are dangerous to kids."
The legislation would protect minors' data, provide tools for parents, and make it easier to report harm.
It is the responsibility of parents and grandparents to raise up children in the way they should go, not Mark Zuckerberg.
- Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.
