The Metaverse Needs to Figure Out How to Deal With Sexual Assault – By Daniel Van Boom (CNET) / June 4, 2022
Commentary: Moderating social media is hard. Moderating the metaverse will be harder.
This story is part of Making the Metaverse, CNET’s exploration of the next stage in the internet’s evolution.
Watching a friend or family member use a VR headset is a strange experience. They gesticulate wildly, flaying at empty space. But they’re reacting to what feels like a very real set of stimuli: Bad guys that need to be shot down, or haunted hallways with ghosts around every corner. It looks preposterous to you. It feels real to them.
Which is why sexual assault in the metaverse is a problem that we can’t afford to wait around on.
On Tuesday, a researcher from SumOfUs, a nonprofit, spent time in Horizons Worlds, Meta’s flagship VR world. It took her less than an hour to be “raped,” according to a report from the organization.
What does it mean to be sexually assaulted in the metaverse? In this instance, the researcher was cornered in a room by two male avatars. One of those avatars got face-to-face with the researcher and made sexually abusive comments, while the other stood back and seemingly drank from a bottle of virtual vodka.
