Moral issues have started showing up on the Metaverse already, and the newly-coined Meta network has more problems coming its way.
A 43-year-old British woman claims she was groped and gang raped in the virtual world by a group of male avatars. She has talked about being “verbally and sexually harassed” by three or four male avatars in Horizon Venues of Meta.
Nina Jane Patel, a psychotherapist who conducts research on the metaverse, said she was left “shocked” after between three and four avatars attacked her in the metaverse.
“It was surreal. It was a nightmare”, is what Nina wrote in the post. She has even talked about the male avatars touching her character’s body inappropriately, and took screenshots for several minutes.
This week I shared my experience of #sexualharassment in Horizon Venues, with @mollclayton, News Reporter at the @DailyMailUK @MailOnline
— Nina Jane Patel (@NinaJane_PhD) January 30, 2022
The article highlights the need for change within the current state of the #Metaverse. https://t.co/KzkP6L4Ej1
Nina Jane Patel said, “Within 60 seconds of joining — I was verbally and sexually harassed — 3 to 4 male avatars, with male voices, essentially, but virtually gang raped my avatar and took photos — as I tried to get away they yelled — ‘don’t pretend you didn’t love it’ and ‘go rub yourself off to the photos.”
In her blog post, she went on to say that “virtual reality has essentially been designed so the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual experiences from real” and, hence, there’s a ‘realness’ to experiences in the virtual world.
“In some capacity, my physiological and psychological response was as though it happened in reality,” she wrote.