Shaping The Future: Principles for Policy Recommendations for Responsible Innovation in Virtual Worlds

Alicia Cork; Mike Richardson; Heide Lukosch; Mohamed Khamis; Christopher Katins; Veronika Kraus; Lauren Ruffin; Sarah Papazoglakis; Victoria  Sanchez; Xueni Pan; Michael Proulx; Danae Stanton Fraser

doi:10.3389/frvir.2025.1645330

Shaping The Future: Principles for Policy Recommendations for Responsible Innovation in Virtual Worlds

Alicia Cork
, Mike Richardson
, Heide Lukosch
, Mohamed Khamis
, Christopher Katins
, Veronika Kraus
, Lauren Ruffin
, Sarah Papazoglakis
, Victoria Sanchez
, Xueni Pan
, Michael Proulx
, Danae Stanton Fraser

University of Canterbury
University of Glasgow
Humboldt University of Berlin
Technische Universität Wien
University of Siegen
Arizona State University
Independent Contributor
Goldsmiths, University of London

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

2 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Extended Reality (XR) technologies are beginning to enter the mainstream and have the potential to change the way humans interact with computers on a global scale. As with all powerful tools, XR not only has the potential for enormous good, but also brings in a new set of challenges for policy to guide its innovation and development. This paper draws on a wide range of expertise from academia, research and development, and industry to collectively provide guiding principles for XR policy. The authors began discussions and developed a framework at a workshop at ACM SIGCHI 2024 and the ideas presented here are the result of debate, discussion, refinement, and offer next steps for the development of pervasive XR. We present three main principles for XR policy: Trust, Agency, and Inclusivity, along with a cross-cutting theme of Future-Proofing. Each principle is broken down and we offer example implementations. This paper aims to build upon previous work and efforts for fair and equitable XR for all, and further dialogue towards tangible changes in policy to help guide responsible innovation in virtual worlds.

Original language	English
Article number	1645330
Journal	Frontiers in Virtual Reality
Volume	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2025.1645330
Publication status	Published - 6 Oct 2025

Funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by MyWorld, funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, Strength in Places Fund (SIPF00006/1) and EPSRC’s National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online (REPHRAIN), grant number: EP/V011189/1.

Funders	Funder number
MyWorld	SIPF00006/1
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council	EP/V011189/1

Keywords

extended reality
immersive technology
policy recommendations
principles for policy
virtual reality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Human-Computer Interaction
Computer Science Applications
Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

Access to Document

10.3389/frvir.2025.1645330Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Shaping The Future: Principles for Policy Recommendations for Responsible Innovation in Virtual Worlds",

abstract = "Extended Reality (XR) technologies are beginning to enter the mainstream and have the potential to change the way humans interact with computers on a global scale. As with all powerful tools, XR not only has the potential for enormous good, but also brings in a new set of challenges for policy to guide its innovation and development. This paper draws on a wide range of expertise from academia, research and development, and industry to collectively provide guiding principles for XR policy. The authors began discussions and developed a framework at a workshop at ACM SIGCHI 2024 and the ideas presented here are the result of debate, discussion, refinement, and offer next steps for the development of pervasive XR. We present three main principles for XR policy: Trust, Agency, and Inclusivity, along with a cross-cutting theme of Future-Proofing. Each principle is broken down and we offer example implementations. This paper aims to build upon previous work and efforts for fair and equitable XR for all, and further dialogue towards tangible changes in policy to help guide responsible innovation in virtual worlds.",

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AU - Lukosch, Heide

AU - Khamis, Mohamed

AU - Katins, Christopher

AU - Kraus, Veronika

AU - Ruffin, Lauren

AU - Papazoglakis, Sarah

AU - Sanchez, Victoria

AU - Pan, Xueni

AU - Proulx, Michael

AU - Stanton Fraser, Danae

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N2 - Extended Reality (XR) technologies are beginning to enter the mainstream and have the potential to change the way humans interact with computers on a global scale. As with all powerful tools, XR not only has the potential for enormous good, but also brings in a new set of challenges for policy to guide its innovation and development. This paper draws on a wide range of expertise from academia, research and development, and industry to collectively provide guiding principles for XR policy. The authors began discussions and developed a framework at a workshop at ACM SIGCHI 2024 and the ideas presented here are the result of debate, discussion, refinement, and offer next steps for the development of pervasive XR. We present three main principles for XR policy: Trust, Agency, and Inclusivity, along with a cross-cutting theme of Future-Proofing. Each principle is broken down and we offer example implementations. This paper aims to build upon previous work and efforts for fair and equitable XR for all, and further dialogue towards tangible changes in policy to help guide responsible innovation in virtual worlds.

AB - Extended Reality (XR) technologies are beginning to enter the mainstream and have the potential to change the way humans interact with computers on a global scale. As with all powerful tools, XR not only has the potential for enormous good, but also brings in a new set of challenges for policy to guide its innovation and development. This paper draws on a wide range of expertise from academia, research and development, and industry to collectively provide guiding principles for XR policy. The authors began discussions and developed a framework at a workshop at ACM SIGCHI 2024 and the ideas presented here are the result of debate, discussion, refinement, and offer next steps for the development of pervasive XR. We present three main principles for XR policy: Trust, Agency, and Inclusivity, along with a cross-cutting theme of Future-Proofing. Each principle is broken down and we offer example implementations. This paper aims to build upon previous work and efforts for fair and equitable XR for all, and further dialogue towards tangible changes in policy to help guide responsible innovation in virtual worlds.

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ER -

Shaping The Future: Principles for Policy Recommendations for Responsible Innovation in Virtual Worlds

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Cite this