According to a 21-year-old SumOfUs activist, a virtual reality platform called Horizon Worlds metaverse sexually abused her avatar while she played.
Horizon Worlds clip shows a woman’s avatar and two male avatars in a virtual room together. The woman is being watched by one of the avatars, while the other looks to be very near to her. Asexual comments are made by both male avatars.
Despite the fact that the attack did not take place in the real world, SumOfUs director Vicky Wyatt claimed that it still counts and has a meaningful impact on users.
Homophobic remarks and virtual gun violence are also alleged to have been witnessed by the researcher, according to the organisation.
Wyatt opined that Meta must take action immediately to address the problems at hand.
To Facebook, we say, “Look, you need to stop and look at all the harms that are happening on your platforms right now that you can’t even deal with,” rather than plunging headlong into this metaverse. The metaverse doesn’t need any more of those. It’s time for a new strategy for dealing with internet harms in the metaverse.
There have been further complaints of virtual harassment and sexual assault made against Meta’s Horizon Worlds.
It was reported in February that a psychotherapist had spoken up about her experience of being “virtually gang raped” on Facebook because the simulation had been technologically advanced enough to feel real.
As soon as she entered the virtual realm, she was attacked by three or four avatars, according to the metaverse researcher.
This attack was a wake-up call for Meta, which implemented “Personal Boundary,” which prevents users from invading each other’s personal space by default.
