Extended reality environments and child safety: Examining the emerging risks for child sexual exploitation and abuse and discussing prevention and response through a technologised neo-ecological perspective

This paper examines the harms and risks for child sexual exploitation and abuse arising from emerging Extended Reality technologies, together with challenges and suggestions for prevention and response through a technologised neo-ecological perspective. To do so, we conducted a scoping review of scholarly and grey literature due to the emerging nature of this topic and the evidence on it, in order to summarise existing knowledge and understand the gaps in theory and policymaking; as well as qualitative online interviews with professionals with expertise in technology, child protection, social work, law and policymaking that were informed by our scoping review and aimed to further explore the gaps and themes that arose through our examination of emerging literature. Evidently, the risks arising from Extended Reality may impact all layers of a child's ecology and may therefore have long-term repercussions for children, negatively affecting their growth and welfare, as well as their immediate and wider environments. Given the multidimensionality of these harms, preventative and responsive efforts need to follow an equally multidimensional approach to safeguard children in these new, immersive online worlds.