Big Buddy: A Simulated Embodied Moderating System to Mitigate Children’s Reaction to Provocative Situations within Social Virtual Reality

The use of social Virtual Reality (VR) among children is increasing, but with it comes new forms of harassment that can be difficult for parents to monitor. To address this issue, we have developed "Big Buddy", a prototype AI-moderator that aims to safeguard children from potential harassment in social VR. We conducted a study in which 43 children (aged 8-16) participated in a simulated social VR classroom, with fictitious competitors disrupting their game. When Big Buddy intervened, the children reported feeling significantly less negative emotions and felt safer. This is the first study to empirically examine the use of an embodied AI-moderator in social VR from the perspective of children, and it provides important insights for designing AI-moderators in social VR.