Physical Risk
VR, despite being so advanced, still hasn’t been perfected. This has led to issues that have made people question the safety of VR. It might be surprising, but VR poses great risk physically. Being imperfect, some VR headsets can’t track its user’s movements correctly in real time, as in there would be a slight delay from when the user moves in real life and in the virtual reality (Korolov, 2014). Even though the delay is short, any discrepancies or inaccuracies in the registering of movement can lead to motion sickness and nausea. This was such a concern that the US military was uncertain about the use of VR in their training. They decided to opt out of using the standard VR headsets for higher-end models, over ten times the price of the standard models out of worry for their soldiers. Another risk of VR is its potential to induce dizziness, blackouts, or epileptic seizures. This has led to many sites of entertainment such as Chuck E. Cheeses to recall their VR machines and for warnings to be explicitly mentioned in the terms and conditions of VR products (Korolov, 2014).
Psychological Risk
At its current state, VR isn’t even remotely close to being indistinguishable from real life however, it is powerful enough to fool the user's subconscious mind into believing that they are in a specific environment. This poses the risk of triggering phobias in users, such as the fear of cramped areas, heights, or spiders (Korolov, 2014).
Behavioral Risk
Other than physical harm, VR also presents a behavioral risk as well. Similar to social media or cyber bullying, VR creates an environment where users can essentially hide behind a virtual mask. They can’t cause any physical harm, but under that virtual mask, users will feel that they can say comments that are deemed offensive that they usually wouldn’t say in person. With VR, there is the possibility for bullying, stalking, or harassment, except the VR environment makes these negative interactions feel even more real and personal (Korolov, 2014). This is an issue in jobs that use VR that companies warn their employees about. In all, VR has its problems, but these issues are being worked on every day to perfect the VR experience, and these issues still don’t even come close to invalidating the positive uses of VR and its potential.