The Metaverse is a virtual reality platform, and the world’s first decentralized multiplayer online market. If you’ve been paying attention to VR-related news lately, then it’s not hard for you to imagine how sexual assault in the metaverse might make headlines. It does exactly that this week with an incident involving a woman who claims she was groped by another player inside of her own home while wearing Oculus Rift headset.
A Changing Legal Conundrum in the Metaverse: A Woman Claims She Was Groped In A Virtual Reality Venue
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Nina Jane Patel is the Vice President of Metaverse Research at Kabuni, a corporation that is working to create the “world’s safest metaverse for kids.”
Patel claimed in a blog post that she was “verbally and sexually harassed” by “3–4 male avatars, with male voices,” who “virtually gang raped my avatar and took photos — as I tried to flee, they yelled — ‘don’t pretend you didn’t love it’ and ‘go rub yourself off to the photo’” while in the Metaverse.
“We’re sorry to hear this occurred,” a Meta spokeswoman told Business Insider Australia via email. We want everyone at Horizon Venues to have a good time, and to be able to quickly use the safety resources that may aid in a scenario like this – and to assist us in investigating and taking action.”
Patel did not utilize Meta’s reporting options to possibly halt the event, according to the spokeswoman. “Patel did not take use of the platform’s reporting features, which enable users to ban, mute, and report anybody who comes close to them.” Patel stated she couldn’t utilize the equipment quickly enough. “We will continue to improve as we learn more about how people engage in these areas,” the Meta statement said, “particularly when it comes to helping users report things simply and reliably.”
Then there’s the issue of legality and the alleged wrongdoings. “Where a lady has been sexually assaulted online, that itself perhaps ought to be unlawful but isn’t at the moment,” Nick Brett of London law firm Brett Wilson told the Daily Mail.
“Every potential crime and tort that can be perpetrated in the real world may be performed in the metaverse, especially with several players,” said Schuyler Moore, a Forbes Entertainment writer. Theft of virtual things that may be exchanged for virtual or real money has previously been documented.”
Moore raised the issue of whether legal action may be done if such acts happen in the virtual world. “What would happen if one avatar raped another, resulting in post-traumatic stress syndrome in a user?” What if it was a repeat offender who was known to the metaverse company? In our bright new metaverse world, such questions aren’t far away.”
In IoT For All, Ciarán McCollum sketched an image of the Metaverse, comparing it to a scene from Ready Player One, in which people are more involved in their online avatars than in the actual world. “The metaverse is intended to be a location where people may literally live in the future.”
McCollum uses the example of a guy who has been hacked and has lost his whole life’s work in his virtual avatar. “For employment, your company needs you to log into the metaverse. Many years later, you wake up to discover your avatar, a meticulously and expensively created artificial body, has been destroyed by a hacker. It is unrecoverable. You are late for a crucial meeting. As you recover from the loss of your virtual investment, your virtual self, you can miss a week or more of them. Who is going to reimburse you? Will the criminal be apprehended? “Will he be held accountable?”
From a legal standpoint, these are unexplored waters. Many legal professionals will need to debate the legitimacy of such behaviors in the Metaverse, as well as whether or not individuals can or should be punished for actions they or their avatars perform in a virtual reality realm.
