British police are investigating the alleged gang-rape of a girl’s avatar in a virtual reality game, in what is believed to be the first investigation of its kind involving the metaverse.
The alleged victim, identified only as a girl under 16, was wearing a virtual reality headset in an immersive game when her avatar, an animated representation of her, was raped by several men, the Daily Mail reported.
Although the accuser did not suffer any physical injuries, she may have suffered the same trauma as someone who has been raped in real life, police sources told the outlet.
“There is an emotional and psychological impact on the victim that lasts longer than the physical injuries,” a senior official familiar with the case told the outlet.
However, UK authorities fear it will be impossible to prosecute under existing laws, which define sexual assault as non-consensual sexual physical contact.
Police in the UK are investigating the gang rape of a young girl’s avatar in an immersive VR video game. Gorodenkoff – stock.adobe.com
The investigation has raised questions about whether police should use limited time and resources to investigate metaverse crimes while grappling with a backlog of rape cases.
But Home Secretary James Cleverly defended the ongoing VR rape investigation.
“I know it’s easy to dismiss this as unreal, but the point of this virtual environment is that it’s very immersive,” the senior politician told LBC’s “Nick Ferrari at Breakfast” programme.
“And we’re talking about a child here, and a child who has been through sexual trauma,” he added.
“It will have a very significant psychological effect and we have to be very careful to rule this out.”
The alleged victim, under the age of 16, was wearing a headset when her avatar was attacked by several male avatars, who allegedly caused her psychological trauma. ImageFlow – stock.adobe.com
Wise also argued that someone willing to rape a child’s avatar in a video game “may be someone who could go on to do terrible things in the physical realm.”
Ian Critchley, head of child protection and abuse investigations at the Inspector-General’s Council, echoed Cleverly’s words, telling the Mail that the metaverse creates a “gateway” for predators to prey on children.
Several sex crimes have been reported in the Meta Horizons World VR game. ZUMAPRESS.com
Critchley emphasized the need for the continued evolution of policing methods to deal with crimes committed online and for the passage of relevant laws, and he also called on technology companies to do more to keep their users safe.
There have been several reports of virtual sex crimes at Horizon Worlds — a free VR game run by Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
A senior police investigator told the Mail that the metaverse has become “rife” with online sex crimes and other types of offences, including virtual theft, but so far there have been no prosecutions in the UK.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
