The number of accidents users report includes broken vases, dislocated shoulders, injured girlfriends particularly as some of the things require too much movement in confined spaces.

According to the Wall Street Journal, teenager Toby Robicelli got a trip to the ER after he tried to play a shooter game called "Superhot VR” using a $300 virtual-reality headset he got for Christmas. Toby, 14, is now using crutches.

Sales of VR headsets rose more than 70 per cent last year from 2020 to 7.9 million units. Demand is driven in part by rising hype around the metaverse, a term proponents use to describe a future 3-D version of the internet, comprising virtual worlds where people will get together to work, learn and play.

It looks like the users will be what lets the technology down, but it was ever thus.