Women will soon no longer dare to put on a virtual reality headset for fear of being heckled in immersive worlds. To believe that a female avatar has as much risk of having a bad encounter as a woman alone in the alleys of the capital at 3 a.m. According to Dailymail In early January, a minor under the age of 16 was sexually assaulted by several players in an immersive video game. According to the police, who opened an investigation, the victim suffered psychological trauma comparable to rape in reality.
“This young girl, unfortunately, will not be the last to experience an attack in the metaverse,” laments the entrepreneur Nina Jane Patel, who works as a consultant on the threats of virtual worlds for children with two London universities (Middlesex and East London). She herself was the victim of sexual assault in 2022 while testing Meta’s Horizon Worlds update. She comes back for 20 minutes on the flaws of virtual worlds and on its aggression.
How does the metaverse represent a threat to young people?
None of the children we consulted during our research consider the metaverse a safe place. They were all exposed to violent content. They fear online disinhibition, that is, the tendency of individuals not to feel responsible for their actions. Some people hide behind their anonymity and feel more comfortable doing wrong things. All the children we interviewed, regardless of their age, were victims or witnesses of racism, homophobia, sexual harassment in the metaverse.
Did the sexual assault you suffered take place during this study?
In parallel with this study with children, I have been working since 2020 on the physiological implications of virtual reality. Eye movements, heart rate and galvanic skin response (GSR), i.e. the physiological response to external and internal stimuli, are measured in virtual reality. This was the subject of my study when I suffered a sexual assault in the metaverse.
Can you explain how this happened?
Meta’s Horizon Venues had just launched in the UK. Like many people, I was excited. I spent quite a bit of time in the private area creating my avatar. I selected the different options in the library: colors, face shape, clothes. When you look in the mirror, your avatar reproduces your actions identically. This is called incarnation [embodiment, en anglais], the brain begins to mistake your virtual body for your real body. Numerous research studies are interested in the feeling of embodiment and its extent. This is what makes the metaverse compelling. Not only does it reproduce your gestures, but facial recognition technologies know when you smile or blink. These facial expressions also appear when you look in the mirror. Embodiment creates a feeling of authenticity. It’s also very attractive.
How did the attack happen?
I finished my avatar. At the time, I was a 43-year-old mother of four, so that’s what I looked like in the metaverse. I entered the lobby which is a shared virtual environment. A few minutes after my arrival, three male avatars came to meet me and attacked me verbally, with a very misogynistic tone, before attacking me physically. They brought their faces very close to mine, saying, “What are you doing here?” » Very violently. “Why did you come”? It quickly degenerated with sexual remarks that I would not repeat. They started touching my avatar in an inappropriate way that could be considered sexual assault.
Can we touch each other in the metaverse?
At that time, personal bubbles to avoid harassment had not yet been deployed. You can greet someone with a high five, give a check, and even a hug. When you clap your hand, you hear the sound in the virtual world. Thanks to many features, touching another person is fun. But these individuals decided to use them maliciously. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was attacked that day. They were very aggressive and very efficient.
How did you stop them?
When I took off my headset, I could still hear their voices. I disconnected. They chased me and refused to stop even though I asked them numerous times to stop. I ended up disconnecting my headset.
In an interview with CNN, you explained that you were the victim of cyberharassment after publishing an article about your attack.
I continue to receive negative comments on Instagram, X, Facebook, and directly by email. They call me stupid. According to them, I am ridiculous for claiming to have been attacked. They call me crazy, I should be interned in a psychiatric hospital, the words are much less kind than what I repeat to you. My story is completely absurd to them.
According to British police, the teenager who was the victim of a virtual rape suffered psychological trauma equivalent to rape in the real world. Were you traumatized by this attack?
Yes. The body responds automatically to stimuli due to the feeling of embodiment specific to the metaverse. When someone approaches you, you feel their presence. When someone yells at you, they really yell at you. Your body responds physically and physiologically to what is happening. I applaud this young girl. It’s very courageous to have gone to the police to say “this is what I experienced, this is not normal, this should not happen”. If she shared her experience, I suppose a part of her took it very badly. She was certainly very affected. Another young girl who will probably never put a helmet on her head again. It’s a shame from the point of view of parity in the world of technology…
Why do you think these men act this way?
We could call it misogyny or imagine that they act the same way in the physical world. They may have a feeling of impunity. Maybe they find it funny and entertaining to attack a woman in the metaverse. It should be noted that many people attracted to virtual reality play games like “Grand Theft Auto” (GTA) or “Call of Duty” where the immersive experience is entirely based on crime: shooting others, robbing a bank , kill… And you have a virtual reality platform whose principle is to interact with loved ones, to live a social experience. And you have people who grew up using virtual reality where they kill each other.
As a researcher, would you say these behaviors are common?
The sexual harassment I experienced is not the first in the digital world and will not be the last. This young girl, unfortunately, will not be the last either. Every day, we witness racism, homophobia, misogyny, sexual harassment… We authorize harmful behaviors that we prohibit in the physical world. We create threatening spaces online, especially for young people and women. This is not because technology is not capable of creating protected spaces. The platforms allow these attacks to take place by avoiding responsibility. Historically, society has not considered virtual experiences to be real. We brush it off and say, it’s just online. What happens online is real for a young person.