The Multidisciplinary Center on Childhood, Public Policy, and Sustainable Society

The Metaverse

The Metaverse is a virtual world where users can engage in a variety of activities like owning virtual property, playing games, working, and socializing. This virtual world provides children with countless possibilities to interact with others, pick up new skills, and pursue their hobbies. For instance, Minecraft is already being utilized as an educational setting that introduces students to various cultures and aspects of the Metaverse. Whether they are attending virtual lessons through educational platforms or playing online games with friends, children can really benefit from the Metaverse. However, there are challenges and drawbacks associated with this new virtual world that include cyberbullying and exposure to questionable and even harmful experiences and content. This research focuses on children’s ability to safely and effectively navigate the Metaverse, the potential regulation that can help with that, and whether children’s ability to benefit from the Metaverse will ultimately depend mainly on their caregivers and educators’ strict and careful monitoring, or not.