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Comment by kgwxd | Hacker News Reader

My 5 year old really wants a VR set. Oculus is not an option. Are there other VR headsets that are either standalone or PC driven that would be good for that age group?

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Pretty questionable whether you should be letting a five year old use any VR headset. Oculus Quest specifies only ages 13+ and the science is definitely not settled as to how VR use would affect motor coordination development. If nothing else, the ergonomics really are not going to work for a child that young using any headset released to date (and I don't imagine any company sticking their neck out to release a targeted pre-teen headset anytime soon).

I wouldn't recommend VR for anyone under 12-13 or so. Eyes are still developing at that age and there's a possible chance of screwing up focus with extended VR use.

Has this actually been proven or is it like the old wives tale that sitting too close to the tv will do the same thing?

Old wives’ tale, but considering there are few basically unsubstantiated claims that VR magically fixed some crossed eyes and nearsightedness, it wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable to be cautions about children's futures. Something like that.

i feel like more research is necessary into potential links between VR use and any optical complications before we can assume this to be true.

I have never heard of this before do you have any sources or data points? From a quick google it seems to be a warning that Sony is at least putting on their VR offering.

This source says otherwise: "ophthalmologists agree there is no reason to be concerned that VR headsets will damage eye development, health or function." https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/are-virtual-r...

It seems like there is just a lack of data regarding the impact of VR usage on eye development and as a result people are being rightful cautious.

The Vive is PC driven and can be made wireless with accessories. There are social games on steam that work on it and are mostly populated by kids. The headset is fairly heavy though and also somewhat large, and the minimum eye-distance setting is pretty high so I don't know if it'd fit a 5yo.

Nintendo Labo VR is for 7 and up. That's about as low as it gets.

If you've got an old phone and $10, a 5 year old could have some fun looking around with Google Cardboard. The product was unfortunately victim to another Google product sunset in March of this year [1] but still works, and it would give you an opportunity to see if they actually like it and check how vulnerable they are to motion sickness. The lag and accuracy are pretty poor (depending on the phone's processor and accellerometer/gyro) but there's no sense spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a 5-year-old's whims.

Unless, of course, they're actually your whims and you're using "my 5 year old wants it" as a perfectly valid excuse...

My 5-year-old has fun playing Mario on my 20-year-old Game Boy Color, but has no idea that VR or VR gaming is even a thing. Maybe I'll get him a Game Boy Advance SP or a Gamecube in a couple years...there was a Penny Arcade or XKCD or similar webcomic a few years back about someone who had artificially restricted themselves to games and systems released 5 years before the present so they could savor the improvements in game design without dealing with the availability issues. It was presented in jest but is actually a reasonable system, and saves a lot of money in the process!

[1]: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/googles-vr-dreams-ar...

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