Last week, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) opened access to its virtual reality social media platform, Horizon Worlds, where up to 20 avatars can come together at a time to explore, hang out, and build in virtual space.
But according to the MIT Technology Review website (the media of the prestigious American university) on November 26, a beta tester told Meta that she was groped by a stranger on Horizon Worlds. On December 1, Meta announced that it had posted its experience in the Horizon Worlds beta testing group on Facebook.
Meta’s internal review of the incident found that the beta tester should have used a tool called “Safe Zone”, which is part of a set of safety features built into Horizon Worlds. Safe Zone is a protective bubble that users can activate when they feel threatened. Inside it, no one can touch them, talk to them, or interact in any way until they signal that they want to remove the Safe Zone.
Vivek Sharma, the vice president of Horizon, called the groping incident “absolutely unfortunate”, telling The Verge, “But it’s still good feedback for us as I want to make [the lockout feature] trivially easy to find.”
It is not the first time that a user has been groped in virtual reality, recalls MIT Technology Review, nor, unfortunately, will be the last. But the incident shows that until companies figure out how to protect participants, the metaverse can never be a safe place.
There had been similar cases in 2016, which sparked a debate on Medium whether it is actually a groping or not, when the physical person’s body was not physically touched.
“I think people should keep in mind that sexual harassment never had to be a physical thing,” says Jesse Fox, an associate professor at Ohio State University who researches the social implications of virtual reality. “It can be verbal, and yes, it can also be a virtual experience.”
Katherine Cross, who researches online harassment at the University of Washington, says that when virtual reality is immersive is real, the toxic behavior that occurs in that environment is also real. “At the end of the day, the nature of virtual reality spaces is such that it is designed to trick the user into thinking they are physically in a certain space, that their every bodily action is taking place in a 3D environment,” she says. “It’s part of the reason emotional reactions can be stronger in that space, and because VR triggers the same internal nervous system and psychological responses.”
That, points out MIT Technology review, occurred in the case of the woman who was groped on Horizon Worlds. According to The Verge, her post read: “Sexual harassment is no ordinary internet joke, but being in VR adds another layer that makes the event more intense. Not only was I groped last night, but there were others. people who supported this behavior, which made me feel isolated in the Plaza [the central gathering space of the virtual environment]. ”
Sexual violence and harassment in virtual worlds is nothing new, nor is it realistic to expect a world where these problems will completely disappear. As long as there are people hiding behind their computer screens to evade moral responsibility,
The question is who’s responsible for making sure users are comfortable
Meta, for example, says it gives users access to tools to keep themselves safe, effectively shifting the burden on them.
“We want everyone in Horizon Worlds to have a positive experience with easy-to-find security tools, and it’s never the user’s fault if they don’t use all the features we offer,” Meta spokesperson Kristina Milian told MIT TR. . “We will continue to improve our UI and better understand how people use our tools so that users are able to report things easily and reliably. Our goal is to make Horizon Worlds safe, and we are committed to do this job “.
Milian reported that users must undergo an accreditation process before joining Horizon Worlds which teaches them how to launch Safe Zone, adding that regular reminders are loaded into screenshots and posters within Horizon Worlds.
