Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg, bares open her thoughts on the virtual world’s impact on children. Being the mother of three, Randi is utterly concerned that excessive exposure of children and teenagers to technology might gradually distance them from the real world. At the Credit Suisse Global Supertrends Conference, she claims to be an ardent supporter of the real world in offering her toddlers a safe environment.
Randi Zuckerberg’s opinion undermines a grim issue
The growing prominence of digitization and easy accessibility to the virtual world through games or other types of content poses a threat to children’s future. Parenting is becoming challenging as today’s parents find it hard to keep their toddlers away from phones or laptops.
Lately, the growing popularity of the crypto and metaverse too received acclaim from people who use virtual reality platforms for conducting buying, trading and selling activities. Last October, Facebook announced to switch to the name Meta to make virtual reality products more accessible to customers. Per Meta’s co-founder Randi Zuckerberg, it would be great if we could try using technology for posting educational and valuable content.
Undoubtedly, a stratum of society is gaining from the metaverse, especially businesses that can now connect to their customers through introducing technical innovations. However, the situation is worrisome for teenagers; they get exposed to content related to sexual abuse and other age-inappropriate material that grimly affects their mental well-being.
What do parents need to know?
Imposing severe restrictions on your children won’t help; parents must first require meta-literacy. When they learn how to use metaverse appropriately and effectively, they find it easy to teach their children.
Here we listed some important tips every parent must know before exposing toddlers and teenagers to VRs.
- Educate kids on the metaverse
Inculcate the right set of moral values in your kids by teaching them what to watch and what not to. Ask them to be cautious about people they are interacting with online and never share personal information with strangers.
- Monitor time spent on VRs
Children often spend long hours in metaverse games that harm their physical and mental health. Spending long hours on virtual media puts excessive strain on the eyes, especially the toddlers. Parents should fix a time for the children to spend on virtual reality platforms.
- Make informed choice
Stay updated on changing policies, and learn about the most recent VR and metaverse-related studies. Try researching about safest metaverse products for your children and keep track of emerging metaverse trends.
Well, the metaverse is a fast-growing and ever-evolving platform. To safeguard your children against the harmful components of VR, keep communicating with the children so that when facing any issue, they can talk to you for a solution.