u/giverous

Hi

I've had a read through the buying guides, but frankly I'm still lost. My daughter (9y/o) recently spent the night at a friends house and the friend has a Meta Quest 3S(?) headset. Apparently they played beat sabre, which she loved.

They also used some kind of social app where she got to talk to people and interact in a virtual world - this is a BIG deal for me, because her autism makes real-world interaction with people difficult for her, but she was positively RAVING about it when she came home, and I think it might be good for her to stretch those skills in a 'safe' space.

I had a couple of questions - I'm considering getting her a headset, but the cost is somewhat prohibitive. I'm looking at a used Oculus Quest 2. They seem like a good compromise between cost and performance at around £100-£120 used in the UK.

I know it should run beat sabre easily, and I like that I can hook it up to my PC and try a bit of PC RV myself, which is attractive.

My main question is - given the age of the Quest 2, is it a bad investment at this point? I don't want an all singing all dancing device, I just want something cheap and cheerful, but I don't want something that's not going to be more than a paperweight in like a year, you know?

Second question - my daughter didn't know what app they were using to 'socialise', but is this something as fraught with danger as I suspect given how bad the internet in general can be for kids? I don't want her involved in anything which could expose her to inappropriate people/language/themes etc.

Thanks for any help all, really appreciate some opinions for a VR noob.