Police are investigating a first-of-its-kind crime after a girl was allegedly gang raped in the Metaverse.
British police said that the girl, who is under the age of 16, was left distraught after a group of online strangers raped her digital avatar. The girl was not physically harmed, but officers said she suffered the same psychological and emotional trauma that real-life rape victims experience.
The virtual reality experience is designed to be a fully immersive experience. Daily Mail reported that this is believed to be the first time that police in the UK have investigated a virtual sexual offense.
The victim was reportedly in an online “room” with several adult male users when the attack reportedly took place. Leaders in law enforcement have since begun calling for legislation to prevent more incidents like this, adding that police tactics will also need to be updated to prevent offenders from using VR technology to exploit children.
However, the case has led to questions from the public as police and prosecutors have been struggling to go through a backlog of real-life rape cases. Many asked how virtual offenses would be prosecuted under current laws.
Ian Critchley, the Child Protection and Abuse Investigation Lead of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, told Daily Mail, “The metaverse creates a gateway for predators to commit horrific crimes against children.”
In order to protect the child involved in the case, much of the details surrounding the case have been kept under wraps.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said during LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast program, “I know it is easy to dismiss this as being not real, but the whole point of these virtual environments is they are incredibly immersive.”
He added, “It’s also worth realizing that somebody who is willing to put a child through a trauma like that digitally may well be someone that could go on to do terrible things in the physical realm. I do think it’s right we look seriously at this. We’ve got to understand that in the world of immersive digital media, I think we have a duty to take issues like this seriously. It might seem strange to some, but I do think this is something well worth looking into.”
A number of sex attacks have also been reported in Horizon Worlds, a free VR online game run by Meta.
A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement, “The kind of behavior described has no place on our platform, which is why for all users we have an automatic protection called personal boundary, which keeps people you don’t know a few feet away from you.”
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