Expert-driven design considerations for real-time safety features in social VR to safeguard children against individual and group harassment

Safety features in social VR vary across platforms in terms of what protections are offered and how they are enacted, with little publicised evidence validating such differences. With the increase in children using social VR, the need to develop safety features designed around their needs, rather than targeting adult users, becomes crucial. Accordingly, we conducted in-depth interviews (n=16) with experts in child online safety and psychology to explore child-targeted safety features. We examined expert perceptions of ten existing real-time social VR safety features, drawn from two popular social VR platforms. We then asked experts to propose recommendations for and to reflect on safeguarding children from harassment in social VR, giving specific consideration to (a) individual versus group harassment, as the impact can be amplified and the social interaction dynamics differ; (b) the perspectives of harasser versus victim. We contribute seven expert-derived guidelines for the design of safety features to safeguard children in social VR.