VR Technology and the Moral Education of Children
摘要
While much has been written on the benefits and risks of Virtual Reality (VR) technology, particularly as this concerns children and their physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development, very little attention has been given to how VR might impact children’s moral development. Here I consider this important dimension of the potential impact of VR. First, I clarify the nature of parental obligations to children and endorse the widely held view that the overarching duty of parents is to ensure that their children have a reasonable opportunity for a decent life. Next, I turn to a consideration of what it means to morally educate one’s children. I propose that this principally involves training children to become morally serious, morally autonomous, and morally virtuous. With these aims of moral education in view, I discuss the potential moral benefits and risks of VR for children and the implications of this for how parents ought to govern their kids’ VR usage. I find that children’s use of VR presents both significant benefits and risks. Given the known dangers of VR, as well as acknowledged uncertainties regarding the long-term impacts of this technology, I propose three moral guidelines for parents and other caretakers as they monitor children’s use of VR: (1) the setting and enforcement of strict age and time limits for VR usage, (2) careful scrutiny of the content of VR apps, and (3) explicit cautioning of children regarding the inherently powerful nature of VR.