Virtual Visits, Real Emotions: Designing Social VR Experiences for Imprisoned Fathers and their Children

Research Background and Problem Statement

• Identified Problems or Challenges: Parental incarceration can severely impact the parent-child relationship, leading to emotional detachment, mental health issues, and social isolation. Prison visitation environments are often unsuitable for children, lacking interactivity and limited to superficial conversations. Existing technologies, such as phone and video calls, offer poor interactivity and fail to bridge the emotional and physical distance effectively. Moreover, there is a significant lack of research or technology specifically addressing real-time interaction between incarcerated parents and their children through Social Virtual Reality (Social VR) solutions.
• Significance: A strong parent-child relationship is crucial for the social rehabilitation of incarcerated parents and the psychological development of children. Providing more interactive and emotionally engaging technological solutions for incarcerated parents and their children can strengthen family bonds and potentially reduce recidivism rates.
• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  • Existing studies indicate that Social VR can enhance emotional connections and social interactions in isolation scenarios, but its potential in prison settings remains underexplored.
  • Research on social games between children and adults suggests that joint participation in interactive activities can effectively strengthen relationships.
  • Studies on VR use in prisons have primarily focused on skills training and rehabilitation, with little attention to real-time interaction between parents and children.

Proposed Solution

• Method or Solution: The authors propose a Social VR-based application ("FabelHaft") that allows incarcerated fathers to meet and interact with their children in a virtual world. The study employs a user-centered design process to gather inmate needs, develop a VR prototype tailored to these needs, and conduct an initial pilot evaluation.
• Innovations:
  • Exploring a novel application of Social VR to enhance parent-child relationships in the sensitive context of prisons.
  • Offering a virtual shared experience that combines entertainment and emotional connection, replacing the traditionally cold prison visitation environment.
  • Designing an open virtual environment where children and fathers can freely interact and choose activities.
• Implementation Steps and Key Technologies:
  1. Needs Analysis:
     • Collaborated with prisons to survey inmate satisfaction with current visitation methods and expectations for VR-based visitation.
     • Needs were categorized into problem analysis (e.g., unfriendly visitation environments), requirement extraction (need for parent-child connection and interaction), and design vision.
  2. Application Design:
     • Developed the application using Unity, running on Meta Quest 3 devices.
     • Designed multiple virtual activities (e.g., basketball, block building) and a fantasy-themed virtual park to cater to children of different age groups.
  3. Pilot Study:
     • Tested the application with four father-child pairs in a prison setting, where fathers and children interacted in real-time through VR from separate rooms.
     • Evaluated emotional experiences, social connectivity, and the entertainment value of the activities.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings:
  • Emotional Experience: Participants generally reported high levels of happiness and emotional connection, though some fathers expressed sadness due to the lack of physical contact.
  • User Experience: Virtual visits were more interactive and engaging than traditional visits, particularly appealing to children.
  • Interactivity: Children and fathers freely participated in various activities, capturing shared joy and nostalgic emotional elements.
• Experimental and Evaluation Results:
  • Both fathers and children expressed high satisfaction with the virtual experience (average child rating: 9.5/10, father rating: 8.88/10).
  • All participants felt a sense of closeness and natural social interaction, despite the limitation of lacking physical contact.
  • VR activities (e.g., "Message in a Bottle") inspired creative interactive behaviors, such as father-child improvisation in using virtual toys.
• Comparison with Existing Solutions:
  • Compared to video calls and traditional visits, Social VR provided more opportunities for interaction and better shielded children from the negative psychological impact of the prison environment.
  • Simple, enjoyable activities and realistic virtual environments encouraged more active participation from children.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  • Limitations:
    • Small sample size, limiting the generalizability of findings.
    • Avatar design lacked flexibility, and some physical operations (e.g., basketball) faced technical constraints.
    • Lack of testing for repeated use, leaving long-term effects unknown.
    • Equipment requirements and prison infrastructure may limit practical deployment.
  • Future Directions:
    • Explore realistic haptic technologies, improve avatar personalization, and enhance interaction perception.
    • Address the needs of a broader prisoner population, including mothers.
    • Expand research to other countries and cultural contexts for broader applicability.
    • Incorporate ritual designs that blend online and offline emotional connections.

Conclusion

This study successfully demonstrates the potential of Social VR by designing a novel method for parent-child interaction, creating new possibilities for maintaining emotional connections, interaction, and relationships in prison environments. While VR cannot fully replace face-to-face visits, it offers a unique mode of interaction that significantly surpasses traditional video or phone call methods, holding profound implications for parent-child relationships constrained by incarceration.