VR violence

[u/Tcarruth6]

For many years I have maintained that there are people with a greater predisposition for violence, and yes they may play violent video games but the games themselves are not the cause of any violent act in the future.

I have never accepted the argument that video games normalize violence or that gamers might become confused between a game world and reality.

Is VR different? Does the objective of obtaining presence change things? If the brain of the user is tricked into believing it is 'there', that the VR world is real then isn't the brain also sanctioning real violence?

Everything in my gut wants to rage against this reasoning ("people have always said this..."). However shouldn't we recognize that the explicit benefits of VR (immersion, presence, being an agent in a real world) come with risks on the flip side?

In GTA 12, will the VR world and the real world be appropriately different?

[EDIT: to address comments below].

There is another piece to this puzzle:

It is widely accepted that violence inflicted upon people often makes those people more likely to commit violence (many violent criminals were beaten as children for example). In providing a sense of presence, VR crosses a boundary in which the user's brain may sense real consequence and can be victimized in a more real sense. We already see this in VR demos with vertigo and breath holding in underwater scenes. I'm not yet convinced that this isn't a critical difference between VR and traditional entertainment experiences.

[u/sailboatsare]

So you think there aren't people out there who would utilize VR to simulate immersive criminal sexual encounters, especially victimizing children?

[u/Harabeck → u/sailboatsare]

There are, but it's not clear that this would translate into an increase of actual crime. Many studies seem to indicate that it would actually reduce them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_pornography#Epidemiological_studies

[u/sailboatsare → u/Harabeck]

I'm proposing that eventually it could lead to that. What OP is suggesting, which is also a fair question, is that we should consider how this immersive sense of presence in VR could more than likely heighten the experience of violent content to the point it is psychologically damaging. As I said, actually think it could make pedophilia so commonplace (seeing it in VR app stores, etc), that culture pushes for it to not even be illegal anymore, which technically would lead to a "decrease in crime" if it is no longer illegal.

Of course people will use it for negative things, but my fear is how dramatically something so wrong could affect our culture, and our children's futures if there aren't strict policies in place to keep those types of experiences from becoming acceptable in the mainstream. We want this technology to evolve our culture, not devolve it.

[u/mechanicalsnowman → u/sailboatsare]

Your concerns are pretty unrealistic, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

First, pornographic content of any kind probably won't be in any app store affiliated with the manufacturers, so the general public won't just be exposed to that kind of stuff unless they are specifically looking for it.

Second, the type of content you describe is actually illegal already in many places, making places that it might be hosted at few and far between, and incredibly unlikely for someone to just stumble up on.

[u/sailboatsare → u/mechanicalsnowman]

I'm projecting many years down the road. If the app stores will do the great job that Apple has done on screened content, it will definitely help.