[This story from the UK’s Birmingham Mail describes some of the work of social care organization Antser that uses immersive media experiences to increase understanding and help prevent domestic violence. For more about its work see Antser’s website. An October 2021 story in Knowable Magazine and a July 2020 story from Australia’s 7NEWS.com.au report on similar efforts. For some evidence-based context see two articles by our colleagues: “Being the Victim of Intimate Partner Violence in Virtual Reality: First- Versus Third-Person Perspective” in Frontiers in Psychology and “The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention” in Frontiers in Communication. And for even more, read (and listen to) an extended interview with expert Maria V. Sanchez-Vives; read the cautionary story “‘Empathy machine’ or false hope? How virtual reality is being used to try to stop domestic violence”; and read about and watch a news report on a different approach to using virtual reality to prevent domestic abuse in Cambodia. –Matthew]
[Image: One Anster virtual reality film depicts an abusive home life for a young child left to fend for herself]
Virtual reality with a baby witnessing violence is shown to abusers in Birmingham tech project
Antser works with local authorities to provide social workers and potential foster parents with an immersive experience of what an abusive situation can look like
By Thomas Cramp, Local Democracy Reporter
May 11, 2022
A Birmingham-based social care tech provider is using VR technology to help perpetrators of domestic abuse understand the effects it can have on survivors and children. Antser aims to use virtual reality as an intervention tool to help reduce domestic abuse cases across the country and particularly shield children from abusive environments.
The company works with people who have previously perpetrated domestic abuse, among others. An individual will use a 360 VR headset to immerse themselves in an abusive environment but from the perspective of the survivor, enabling them to experience their own behaviour through the eyes of a child or partner.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) visited Anster at its headquarters in Edgbaston to find out more about the work they do.
In one series of short films Antser showed the LDRS, a highly abusive home life is depicted where a baby is left to fend for itself while the mother and her male partner are shouting at each other and abusing drugs. Other films depict the child later in life after she has been fostered by another family, and show how the abuse experienced early in her life has affected her years later.
Another film called ‘In Utero’ puts the viewer in the perspective of a baby in the womb of its mother who is being abused. The sound of abuse taking place outside the womb can be heard through the headset and is intended to show that even before birth, a baby can feel the effects of domestic abuse.
Anster works with local authorities to provide social workers and potential foster parents with a visceral experience of what an abusive situation can look like. The company’s work with the London Borough of Redbridge was evaluated by Goldsmiths University in 2020, which found ‘strong evidence’ to suggest perpetrators would be motivated to change their behaviour after using the VR experience.
Serena Hadi is Head of Service at Antser and is a former social worker herself. She said: “What we’ve found is that professional people who work with these children and think they’ve seen a lot, actually come out of the film and say things like ‘Wow, that was really difficult to watch.’”
“Some even say they can’t watch it. I think people watch these films and it really can change their behaviour.”
Touching on the specific impact domestic abuse can have on young children, Ms Hadi said: “When you have early life trauma, you don’t get over it – it stays with you for life because you’re so young. It really does impact your personal development, behaviour, emotions, and how you make relationships.
“Our content library has grown and one narrative follows a toddler into adolescence. Through this narrative, you can see the ongoing impact of trauma. You’ve got adopted children who have been with adopted parents for a long, long time and suddenly it’s going wrong and things become a bit difficult.
“People don’t understand and wonder where these issues have come from having looked after the child for so long, but after using the VR, people suddenly go, ‘oh yeah, I get it now. This isn’t going to go away.’”
Ms Hadi added that this content is rarely used with victims and survivors of domestic abuse as it would be ‘too triggering’.
“We don’t show this content to just anybody, it’s about risk assessment beforehand. For somebody who has been through domestic abuse and is a survivor, you don’t want to trigger what they’ve been through.”
Ms Hadi showed the LDRS the VR training and followed the narrative of the young girl from a toddler to being at school. They were also shown the In Utero videos, along with VR content that shows the path of a vulnerable teenage boy who gets involved with a drug gang. The reporter described the experience as ‘eye-opening’ and ‘viscerally impactful’.
Ms Hadi continued: “Occasionally we deliver directly, but mostly we go into contracts with local authorities and we offer training and support to people who are going to use the VR. We have delivered a lot of training to social workers, teachers, police, healthcare workers, and about 90 per cent of people who do this training say it’s given them better insight into the life of a child.”