Rape in Metaverse: Researcher describes sexual assault in Meta's game
Popping colours, cool designs, funky avatars, fun games, and a boundless opportunity, Metaverse is the next fun internet thing. But behind all that glitter and high tech, lies the same old toxic social media activity, inspired by the reality of all things bad, but multiplied 10 times.
In the latest case, a researcher who went into Meta’s (formerly Facebook) Horizon Worlds virtual game, and was raped within one hour of being there.
WHAT HAPPENED? A non-profit organisation SumOfUS, which says it campaigns to hold big corporations accountable, sent a 21-year-old researcher to test Meta’s Horizon Worlds game. Horizon Worlds is a social networking app that lets users create and interact in ‘unique digital rooms’ called ‘worlds’. The game is available for users in the US and Canada only and as of February 2022, it had around 10,000 separate worlds, and a user base of over 3 lakh people.
SumOfUs revealed that their unnamed researcher experienced sexual assault after just one hour into the game. She was first led into a private party. At the time her safety feature was on by default. The feature makes a barrier of 4 feet between your avatar and that of the avatars of non-friends or anyone you choose.
TRIGGER WARNING! Below is a video clip of the harassment.
But the researcher said she was encouraged to turn off the safety feature by another user after she entered a private party.
As soon as the feature was turned off, a male avatar got too close to her avatar. The researcher was then raped by the male avatar, who kept asking her to turn around so he “could do it from behind”. She also reported that other male avatars stood around watching, passing Vodka bottle, passing lewd comments as her avatar was raped.
The researcher later described the experience as disorienting, not to mention that her controller vibrated as male avatars touched her avatar.
“It happened so fast I kind of disassociated. One part of my brain was like wtf is happening, the other part was like this isn’t a real body, and another part was like, this is important research,” she said in her report.
The researcher described the VR tech as creating a very disorienting and even disturbing physical experience during the virtual assault.
However, it is not the first time that a rape has occurred in the virtual world. Here are 4 other reported instances:
1. Beta testing Horizon Worlds: A beta tester for Horizon Worlds had revealed in a complaint that her avatar was groped by a stranger during a test. She also complained Meta did not take any action against the aggressor, while Meta blamed the tester for not using adequate safety measures made available to users.
2. Nina Jane Patel: Metaverse Researcher Nina Jane Patel described an instance where she was ‘gang raped’ within the first one minute that she entered Horizon Worlds by what appeared to be male avatars.
“A horrible experience that happened so fast before I could even think about putting the safety barrier in place. I froze,” she wrote in her Medium blog.
3. Population One: User Chanelle Siggens describe being harassed on Population One, a Meta-owned platform. She was approached by another player who started groping and ejaculating onto her avatar. Another player Mari DeGrazia also reported being harassed more than 3 times per week on the platform.
4. Echo VR: User Sydney Smith was subjected to lewd and sexist remarks while playing Echo VR, another Meta-owned game. A player on the platform also said that he recorded her voice to “jerk off” later. Smith said that she had difficulty reporting the player to the platform.
While virtual sexual harassment may not sound like a big deal because it is not happening in real life, the reason why these complaints are not taken seriously by the owners either, the trauma of the assault is the same, if not multiplied by 10 as if it occurred in real life.
Patel describes it like this: Virtual reality has essentially been designed so the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual/digital experiences from real. In some capacity, my physiological and psychological response was as though it happened in reality.
It’s not just sexual harassment that is rampant on Metaverse platforms, but SumOfUs also pointed out these:
- Homophobic & racist comments
- Inadequate processes for reporting violations
- Failure to take action against users who violate platforms guidelines
- Ease for children to use the platform and encounter harms