LO3 - Be able to illustrate how the legal, ethical, social and moral issues are considered within the product proposal

 LO3.1

Legal and regulatory requirements

Due to my product serving as a social platform, there are many legal and regulatory requirements. Firstly I must make sure that my product is age tagged by the correct regulatory body and to the correct age rating; in this case as a virtual reality product for social communications, it will be set to a PEGI and ESRB rating of 13 ,however due to the ability for people to have a custom avatar and the ability to use violent, strong language it will be set that users agree to the following EULA, by doing so they represent and warrant to us that:

• They are at least 13 years old
• You have not been previously suspended or removed from the service
• Your registration and use of the service complies to all applicable laws and regulations
• If you are between 13 and 18 years of age you only have access to the service with consent from a legal parent or guardian after having read the EULA

Moreover, other regulatory bodies will be involved with this product, for example the ASA, this is due to our service allowing endorsement from other companies through allowing them to advertise in our service, this is because even in a virtual world, we need to ensure companies follow meet the laws set by the ASA when producing adverts. In addition when marketing our product we will also need to meet ASA standards and ensure we aren't discriminating or offending anyone through our adverts.

There also comes physiological effects from being immersed in virtual reality, for example the screens can cause people to lack in sleep, this is due to screen glare making it difficult to rest, this will result in the person being tired and can affect their mental state. Moreover, due to how close the screens are to your eyes, prolonged use of the headset without break could cause damage to the user's eyes which increases the chances of the user needing glasses. There also runs the risk of users experience motion sickness, this can be nausea or headaches.

Author	Ben Kenwright
Article title:	Virtual Reality: Ethical Challenges and Dangers - IEEE Technology and Society
Website title:	IEEE Technology and Society
URL:	https://technologyandsociety.org/virtual-reality-ethical-challenges-and-dangers/

 

LO3.2

Ethical considerations

it wouldn't be ethical to make this product appeal to a niche audience, this product is meant to be about social interactions and will propose many ethical issues if not understood, as social media as positive as it may be still can have many negative effects on people, for example many people gain insecurities and suffer with mental heath issues from social media. So we would have to find ways to overcome these issues and protect our users from experiencing it. For example we will protect them from cyberbullying and harassment by adding a 'Mute' feature which will make it so you can no longer, see, hear or interact with another user while ever active, this will also activate a function to check the user being muted to see if they need to be banned from accessing the service or possibly even to be taken under investigation as a legal issue. Moreover we will ensure that our application is welcoming to all ethnicities, sexualities and cultures, so we will ensure we involve all and appeal to all when adding in new features and in our advertisements, this will make our product seem more ethical and suitable to everyone. To support this we could also add in a translator function for users to that we can communicate with people that aren't fluent in the same language as us, this would be great for allowing the creation of a global village as it breaks down the barriers built by people's ability to communicate in certain languages. 

Moreover, I must also consider the content featured within my virtual city, as since this is about innovating on social channels to deliver a platform where people can better interact with people from all around the world, I must consider the fact that people have their own beliefs and opinions on the matter.