Legal and ethical analysis and operational guidelines for VR

Background

Virtual Reality (VR) is a disruptive technology with both positives and negatives impacts. Yet, there is no international, EU, or Swedish law that directly addresses or explicitly mentions VR, except a brief passage in the Recital 29 of the EU AI Act. A legal analysis is therefore needed to understand how VR is treated in laws.

In this context, the VR-Gov project aims to develop an ethical and legal framework for the use of VR tools. The project starts by understanding the current ethical and regulatory landscape for VR, in terms of laws and guidelines, by analyzing existing EU and Swedish regulations and engaging with authorities, regions, and other stakeholders. Particular attention will be paid to international and Swedish regulations concerning human rights, gender equity, as well as ethics and governance practices.

Based on the performed landscape analysis and its findings, the project team will work on creating operational guidelines for the development and deployment of VR systems. These guidelines will be created and validated in collaboration with the project actors, through a series of workshops within RISE’s Policy and Ethics Labs, using design thinking to identify needs, challenges, opportunities and ways forward. The project results will help ensure that VR solutions are used in a legally sound, inclusive, and sustainable manner. They will be shared so that they reach real end users and ensure they have the guidance they need when considering to implement VR

Implementation

The project is implemented through four work packages, described here below:

• WP0 - Project Management (M1-M12)
  • Lead: RISE. Goal: Effective project management and coordination.
• WP1 - Ethics and Regulatory Landscape Analysis(M1-M6)
  • Lead: RISE. Goal: Understand the current ethical and regulatory landscape for VR, in terms of laws and guidelines.
• WP2 - Co-creating Operational Guidelines (M4-M10)
  • Lead: RISE. Goal: Create and validate operational guidelines for VR.
• WP3 - Dissemination (M1-M12)
  • Lead: RISE. Goal: Disseminate the project's results and advocate for the exploitation of the operational guidelines.

Budget and participants

The project budget accounts to 1.105 MSEK, of which 1 million SEK is funded by Vinnova, ad part of the call Rules and instruments for cutting-edge technology. The main coordinator is RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden, and project partners are: Domstolsverket, Helsingborgs Stad and Region Kronoberg. 

Moreover, the project has a reference group consisting of representatives from DIGG and the ministry of finance.