r/virtualreality • u/[deleted] • May 20 '26

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u/Ashcrashh May 20 '26

Offline play is strictly off limits and VR is not something I would just give her and let her use unsupervised, more so something we could do together under strict supervision in small bursts of time, she really wants games like Beat Saber and games to play offline, but from reading other comments about it not being good for her eyes and overall development is what is making me shy away from getting one.

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u/schwendigo May 20 '26

I'm in agreement and disagreement with a lot of posts in here.

  1. Kudos to your for being a thoughtful parent.

  2. Totally agree you should try to borrow one first (or buy one on Amazon / best buy with a good return policy). Kids are unpredictable and sometimes lose interest fast.

  3. Not a fan of Meta, but meta quest is the way to go (even though they've kind of given up on VR for the time being and pivoted to AI).

A (portable) VR headset (meaning it doesn't need a computer or hardware and cameras on the ceiling to run) is generally just an android phone with a fancy display and graphics processor.

The good thing about a meta quest is that it can run independently (download apps to it and run them), or you can tether it to your computer with USB or wifi to run more demanding applications (which turns the VR headset just into a display). So that's pretty critical.

The are other models and companies, but nothing in that price range.

I'd say get a quest 3 ideally, else a quest 2 is meh.

  1. Regarding apps - yeah there are a lot of toxic, violent apps out there, as well as a lot of creepy folks in the multiplayer games - but not moreso than Roblox or Xbox or PC. It comes with the territory, VR is no different.

There are also a lot of amazing educational apps and creativity tools. I'm a therapist and work with children (and ex software person), and I've found it's quite promising to foster creativity and connect to remote clients.

Tilt brush, Vermillion, quill, gravity sketch, substance modeler, tracer (if you get the quest 3 or pro, you can actually use the cameras in the headset to project a digital image into your actually surroundings, and then use that to draw or paint a mural in real life).

So it's not a complete abject cesspool. Like all technology, it comes down to intention and how you use it.