A new study out of the University of Texas at Austin finds that kids who spend too much time using virtual reality in school are more likely to become addicted to it later in life.
The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, looked at more than 5,600 students between the ages of 8 and 17.
Researchers found that kids who spent at least seven hours a day using virtual reality in school were twice as likely to become addicted later in life as kids who spent less than three hours a day, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The study also found that kids who spent more than seven hours a day using virtual reality in school were three times as likely to become addicted later than kids who spent less than three hours a day.
The study's lead author, Dr. John Wood, tells the Times that the results show that kids who spend too much time using virtual reality in school "are more likely to become addicted to it later in life."
He adds that it's important for parents and teachers to work together to make sure AR and other virtual reality technologies don't end up in the hands of kids too young to make an informed decision about what to do with them later in life.
(Here's why virtual reality is bad for kids.)
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Caroline Diehl is a serial social entrepreneur in the impact media space. She is Executive Chair and Founder of the UK’s only charitable and co-operatively owned national broadcast television channel Together TV, the leading broadcaster for social change runs a national TV channel in the UK and digital platform which helps people find inspiration to do good in their lives and communities.