Ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible use
Researchers have identified various ethical issues related to the use of VR. For example, issues of consent, privacy and harm. It is important to address these issues as VR impacts various industries, including communications, education and entertainment. Existing ethical frameworks in particular ma...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Virtual Reality |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frvir.2025.1451273/full |
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| author | Urooj S. Raja Reem Al-Baghli |
| author_facet | Urooj S. Raja Reem Al-Baghli |
| author_sort | Urooj S. Raja |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Researchers have identified various ethical issues related to the use of VR. For example, issues of consent, privacy and harm. It is important to address these issues as VR impacts various industries, including communications, education and entertainment. Existing ethical frameworks in particular may be the closest tool we have when it comes to understanding how to curb some of the ethical challenges that the technology presents. Recent work names ethical concerns related to VR, such as privacy and accessibility; however, we note that less discuss frameworks that can be used to guide responsible VR use. Such work also glosses over what various audiences think about ethical issues. This information in turn could be used to determine which existing frameworks can provide guidance for responsible use. To address this gap, we examine current literature, government documents, and conduct an analysis of 300 Amazon reviews of three top-rated VR products—to see whether and what ethical concerns various audiences identify. That is, we ask two questions: 1) Are three specific types of audiences naming ethical VR issues, and if so, what are the issues? 2) What frameworks could potentially guide users toward responsible use? We find that users are concerned about ethical issues and that three frameworks could guide us towards more responsible VR use: 1) Institutional Review Board (IRB) frameworks, 2) a care ethics framework, and 3) co-created, living ethical codes. We further pull from these three frameworks to offer a new ethical synthesis framework or ESF framework that could guide responsible use. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-db06c0c96c364b62946afa770e4f4675 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2673-4192 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Virtual Reality |
| spelling | doaj-art-db06c0c96c364b62946afa770e4f46752025-01-30T14:11:11ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Virtual Reality2673-41922025-01-01610.3389/frvir.2025.14512731451273Ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible useUrooj S. Raja0Reem Al-Baghli1School of Communication, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, United StatesDepartment of Computer Engineering, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, KuwaitResearchers have identified various ethical issues related to the use of VR. For example, issues of consent, privacy and harm. It is important to address these issues as VR impacts various industries, including communications, education and entertainment. Existing ethical frameworks in particular may be the closest tool we have when it comes to understanding how to curb some of the ethical challenges that the technology presents. Recent work names ethical concerns related to VR, such as privacy and accessibility; however, we note that less discuss frameworks that can be used to guide responsible VR use. Such work also glosses over what various audiences think about ethical issues. This information in turn could be used to determine which existing frameworks can provide guidance for responsible use. To address this gap, we examine current literature, government documents, and conduct an analysis of 300 Amazon reviews of three top-rated VR products—to see whether and what ethical concerns various audiences identify. That is, we ask two questions: 1) Are three specific types of audiences naming ethical VR issues, and if so, what are the issues? 2) What frameworks could potentially guide users toward responsible use? We find that users are concerned about ethical issues and that three frameworks could guide us towards more responsible VR use: 1) Institutional Review Board (IRB) frameworks, 2) a care ethics framework, and 3) co-created, living ethical codes. We further pull from these three frameworks to offer a new ethical synthesis framework or ESF framework that could guide responsible use.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frvir.2025.1451273/fullvirtual realityVRethicsresponsible usecare ethicsframework(s) |
| spellingShingle | Urooj S. Raja Reem Al-Baghli Ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible use Frontiers in Virtual Reality virtual reality VR ethics responsible use care ethics framework(s) |
| title | Ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible use |
| title_full | Ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible use |
| title_fullStr | Ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible use |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible use |
| title_short | Ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible use |
| title_sort | ethical concerns in contemporary virtual reality and frameworks for pursuing responsible use |
| topic | virtual reality VR ethics responsible use care ethics framework(s) |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frvir.2025.1451273/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT uroojsraja ethicalconcernsincontemporaryvirtualrealityandframeworksforpursuingresponsibleuse AT reemalbaghli ethicalconcernsincontemporaryvirtualrealityandframeworksforpursuingresponsibleuse |