All seems glamorous and enamoring in the metaverse with various activities to do and metamalls opening. However, the metaverse also has its dark side where criminals are lurking.
International human trafficking expert Matthew Friedman has raised concerns in his article for the South China Morning Post (SCMP) about criminals using virtual reality to exploit and sexually harass users.
Police in the Metaverse: Expert Raised Concerns on Criminals Exploiting Virtual Reality for Human Trafficking
Sexual Harassment in the Metaverse
Nina Patel, the 43-year-old co-founder and vice-president of the educational Metaverse Research for Kabuni, describes her experience in Facebook's Metaverse in a blog post on Medium as surreal and a nightmare. She wrote how she was verbally and sexually harassed immediately upon entering the Horizon Venues Metaverse.
Three to four male avatars with male voices surrounded her avatar, which is made to mirror her actual appearance, and started harassing her. She recalled how the male avatars virtually gang-raped her avatar and took photos as she tried to yell for help. Instead, the perpetrators only told her, "don't pretend you didn't love it," and "go rub yourself off to the photo."
Her experience in the metaverse is not the only one, and there are many victims of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior in the virtual world. Perhaps that is why the reviews for Horizon Venues currently have 2.5/5 stars.
Police May Patrol the Metaverse Soon
According to The Sun, virtual police might be required to patrol the metaverse someday to detect human rights violations to keep everyone safe on the platform before confronting the abusers in real life. Women and children are especially vulnerable to harassment and exploitation not only in real life but also in virtual reality.
In his SCMP article, Friedman pointed out the need to put safeguards to prevent harassment and exploitation in the metaverse. He added that users must be educated about the potential dangers of human trafficking on the platform.
Friedman is the chief executive officer (CEO) of The Mekong Club, a Hong Kong-based organization fighting human trafficking in Asia and helping victims of such crime. It is now looking into how the organization could help fight human traffickers in the virtual world of the metaverse.
He claims that organizations, such as his own, should be able to aid tech companies engaging in the metaverse, like Meta and Microsoft, as they establish worlds in virtual reality.
Which Acts are Considered as Crimes in the Metaverse?
Before the metaverse, multi-user domains (MUD) first existed in 1993. It was the most famous virtual world for social interaction but without graphics and only text. Users navigated in different rooms and would interact with others there. However, inappropriate behavior was also not an alien concept on the said platform.
Like the modern-day metaverse, MUD also struggled with sexual and violent acts, as well as virtual stealing and killing. But these negative behaviors are hard to explain if virtual objects are mere fiction, according to Wired. Philosophers Nathan Wildman and Neil McDonnell argue that virtual objects can't be stolen. Likewise, virtual murder is not considered an actual murder because there is no death.
Punishing wrong actions in virtual worlds could be banishment from the platform. On the other hand, virtual imprisonment and penalties may have some effect. However, people could just create new avatars and play again.
With the increasing seriousness of virtual crimes, it also becomes challenging to impose sanctions that fit the crime. Therefore, society's moral and legal systems will need to catch up.
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