Immersive technologies are transforming the way people interact with digital content, merging virtual and physical worlds through augmented, mixed and virtual reality. By integrating digital layers into real-world environments or creating entirely virtual spaces, these technologies are already making an impact across industries and could unlock new opportunities for addressing societal challenges.
While immersive technologies hold great potential in several fields, they also pose policy challenges. Governments can play a critical role in ensuring that immersive technologies develop in ways that maximise their benefits while mitigating potential harms. Here are 10 steps policymakers can consider for advancing responsible innovation in immersive technologies.
1. Investing in promising applications
Promising applications of immersive technologies can be found in multiple sectors—such as manufacturing, construction, training and culture. Healthcare is one of the most promising, with medical digital twins having gained significant traction in recent years. By combining a patient’s genetic data, clinical history and imaging data, digital twins can simulate and predict the development of diseases in real time and assess the effectiveness of different treatment strategies. Virtual models are, therefore, offering a powerful tool for personalised medicine, while exemplifying the importance of policy foresight to ensure adequate guardrails. Policymakers can consider supporting responsible innovation in areas of application that show promise.
2. Applying privacy and data governance protections
Immersive technologies collect vast amounts of personal data. While virtual reality primarily gathers user-centric data, augmented reality and mixed reality capture and process data from the physical world around the user. Privacy risks are an important concern and existing regulations may not fully address the scope of these challenges. Addressing these issues requires collaboration between governments and companies to minimise data use where possible and ensure appropriate safeguards of personal data. While they cannot replace privacy and data protection regulations, privacy-enhancing technologies also offer valuable tools to mitigate risks.
3. Enhancing children’s safety through safety by design
It is essential that children’s mental health and physical safety are carefully considered and built into virtual reality experiences. Enhancing child safety can be achieved by embedding digital safety by design principles into the development of immersive technologies, such as adopting age-assurance mechanisms. Policymakers can also consider supporting more research on the specific experiences of children using these technologies to better understand any unique risks as well as benefits children may face from use.
4. Protecting users’ fundamental rights and values
Underrepresented and marginalised communities face heightened risks of bias, discrimination, harassment or abuse in virtual worlds, especially given the growing role of AI. Algorithmic biases embedded in immersive technologies’ design could lead to disproportionate harm and deepen digital divides. Policymakers should strive to ensure that fundamental rights—including privacy, freedom of expression and non-discrimination—are upheld in immersive environments just as they are offline.
5. Supporting inclusive and accessible design
Immersive technologies could require specific design changes or features to be used by people with visual, physical, auditory or cognitive impairments. Many accessibility features that work in 2D digital environments may not translate effectively into 3D spaces. Policymakers should support inclusive design practices and initiatives that enable individuals with disabilities to participate in immersive experiences.
6. Bridging skills gaps
Some users find it challenging to implement immersive technologies in a professional setting, hindering wider adoption due to a deficit in relevant skills. Competition for talent with other digital technology developments adds to a significant shortage of skilled professionals in technical fields like software development and hardware engineering. To prevent a slowdown in the development and application of immersive technologies, government could fund relevant upskilling programmes. This approach would help bridge the gap between the current labour market and the needs of the extended reality industry, while promoting an avenue for digital transformation downstream.
7. Promoting digital literacy
Policymakers must address the digital divide that impacts the adoption of immersive technologies, particularly between different generations and socio-economic groups. Older individuals are more likely to have difficulty learning to engage with virtual reality and virtual worlds, while younger users may find these spaces more intuitive. Individuals with lower levels of digital literacy are consequently more vulnerable to security risks in virtual environments. Targeted educational campaigns or training software are one pathway to narrowing these divides and reducing risks for less adept users.
8. Measuring impacts on the environment
Producing and operating immersive technologies could require substantial energy resources, for example for data centres that run virtual worlds or for factories manufacturing hardware devices. However, these technologies could also reduce the environmental footprint of existing activities, such as by replacing some long-distance travel to business meetings or concerts with immersive online experiences. To inform policymaking, it is crucial to produce better data and research on the net environmental impact of these technologies.
9. Promoting cross-platform interoperability
Interoperability remains a major challenge with immersive technologies. Users can find it challenging or impossible to transfer digital assets, preferences or identities across platforms due to incompatible ecosystems, resulting in walled gardens. Policymakers should advocate for open standards for immersive technologies that promote cross-platform interoperability while ensuring regulatory consistency across jurisdictions to reduce friction for both technology developers and operators.
10. Facilitating international co-operation
Global co-operation is vital for addressing cross-border regulatory challenges and creating a cohesive governance framework for immersive technologies. Policymakers should work with industry experts and international stakeholders to develop responsible, forward-looking policies and strategies. Without co-ordination, risks and technology divides may grow.
The OECD Global Forum on Technology brings together stakeholders across government, industry, non-profits and academia to foster conversations on emerging technologies and global co-operation, as well as exchange knowledge and best practices. It facilitates a values-based dialogue to foresee and get ahead of long-term opportunities and risks presented by technology.
To delve deeper into the policy questions surrounding immersive technologies, explore our recently released immersive technologies policy primer and connect with our Global Forum on Technology.
