The metaverse is still an unknown and we don't know to what extent it will gel in society or if we will just spend our day in it. But it already exists, there are already people using it and we are already faced with some difficult-to-solve moral dilemmas. One of those dilemmas already has a sad case as an example: What happens when there is a rape in the metaverse?
This was reported by Nina Jane Patel, who was conducting research on immersive reality at Kabuni Ventures and as soon as she entered Facebook Horizons, the Facebook metaverse, she was raped by a group of male avatars.
“In just 60 seconds, I was verbally and sexually harassed by three or four male avatars, with male voices, who virtually raped my avatar and took photos. As I tried to run away, they yelled, "Don't pretend you don't love it," the victim explained in a Medium post.
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“A horrible experience that happened so fast and before I could even think about putting up a security barrier. I froze. It was surreal. A nightmare ”, continues Patel, who despite everything received comments on the networks criticizing that he entered the network with a female avatar or that he did not leave immediately as he entered.
Facebook's response, via the Verge, was not very satisfactory. Horizon Vice President Vivek Sharma called the incident "unfortunate" but blamed the user for failing to block interactions with other avatars, one of the metaverse's security measures.
There are many questions that generate cases like these and not all of them have an easy answer. Can the user be held responsible for not blocking interactions or leaving the application when attacked? Well, this one does have an answer: Of course not. Does an assault in the metaverse have the same psychological consequences as one in real life?
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“Virtual reality is essentially designed so that the mind and body cannot tell the difference between virtual/digital experiences and real ones. In a way, my physiological and psychological response was as if it really happened," Patel said in his post. And the last one: What should be the legal consequences in case of aggression in virtual reality? For now, there are already digital forensics demanding regulations and fines.
As explained in a recent article La Vanguardia, at the beginning of December there was a similar case in which the user who had suffered it explained that "sexual harassment is not a joke on the Internet, but virtual reality adds another more intense layer".
“Not only was I groped last night, but there were other people there who supported this behavior, which made me feel isolated,” the user explained, according to The Verge.
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