How Metaverse Can Destroy Your Children (3 Dangers)
If you haven’t read the part 1 of the post series which talks about what is Metaverse and where our world is heading, you can click here
Everything good that God creates, the devil tries to replicate through a corrupted version. Metaverse is a basically a “duplicate” world created by technology which one can be a part of. Apart from its physical and psychological impact and security risks, here are 3 main ways how Metaverse can attack your children:
1.It will straight attack their identity
If the devil can get you to question or mess up your identity as a child of God, he can lure you into all kinds of destructive behaviors.
While the Word of God enforces our identity as Image bearers of God (which is incomparable to who we are in the physical realm), in the duplicate world of Metaverse, every aspect of our identity will be completely customizable, as you can “live” as avatars.
The anxiety of self-creation is already crippling Gen Z and Millennials. The idea of being able to fictionalize your identity and project a version of yourself that differs from real life can really mess especially with teenagers and youth. In fact, the younger the child, the less they can discern between the real and the virtual worlds. So a young child’s brain may think that who he portrays himself as in the virtual world was real, or at the very least be confused by the two. This is where Metaverse can cause serious damage.
2. It leaves no room for accountability
Accountability is important because it removes the element of isolation from our Christian walk. Of course, our primary accountability is to God, but being accountable to someone (example, children to parents) can help us stand strong in areas where we can fall (Heb 10:24-25).
Metaverse, while not inherently evil, can offer an easy platform for secret sins. It offers you a platform to commit any “sin”, and, in a manner that seems more realistic than ever before, with little to no accountability. And all these can be kept totally private without anyone knowing what is happening in the virtual world.
This kind of freedom is dangerous – because you have “power”, yet no accountability.
3. It is addictive and highly intrusive
Because VR simulations have become so realistic, they can actually be scarier to children than similar content in movies or video games. In fact, one of the few studies on kids and VR showed that elementary aged kids had difficulty telling the difference between things that happened in VR and things that happened in real life.
Now Metaverse is much more immersive than VR in the sense that it literally puts the user inside its fake environment. This also means that any exposure to sexual content is going to be more intense than seeing it in a movie or video game.
If you are alarmed at the way demonic forces like pornography, abuse, sexual sins, teen sex, exploitation etc are attacking our children right now, then can you imagine the heightened level at which these evils will be exposed to in Metaverse, where children and youth could actually participate in such activities as it would become so real to them.
Today’s social media platforms are already causing problems with teens and youth. Metaverse, with its high level of immersion could make those problems even worse. In the part 3 and concluding part of the Metaverse Series, we will share with you how we as parents can safeguard our children from this technology that is advancing towards them.
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