Raped in the metaverse

[rickyrickygrimes]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/05/metaverse-sexual-assault-vr-game-online-safety-meta

does anyone on here go into the Metaverse? What is it? How does it work?

And how can someone be raped in a virtual world? I’m not disputing at all that it was a traumatic experience for the girl this happened to. Is there actually an offence of ‘virtual rape’?

Major failure by the tech companies who allow these sort of interactions. I remember in Invisible women book there was a story about a virtual headset, where a women was also groped by men. The designers (all men) hadn’t even thought it would be an issue in the game but then they reprogrammed it so was impossible to do. Of course men are going to do nasty stuff in virtual worlds as much a real ones.

Or you could, you know, go to a forum that might have some nice helpful humans who can help with your questions.

OP this is news to me about the hand gesture. I have known people who really enjoy the killing games but the women tend to have male avatars to avoid being targeted or treated differently.

I was confused about this too. So it's that they are making a hand gesture? I must admit, I thought there was more to it and I'm reluctant to ask the gamers I know. They're also going to comment about killing people but when that's the point of the game, everyone knows what they are there for.

It’s obviously not rape but that doesn’t mean it’s trivial - it’s online harassment.

@TheZoehan, are you really saying a child's 'experience' of rape doesn't count? I haven't anywhere suggested she was raped. I am saying the trauma could be intense and damaging.

You seem to be veering close to "she should get raped for real, that'll show her!" As PPs explain, online sexual assault is harmful and is a crime.

This would likely have been voice chat if on the VR - it’s just a big room full of adult predatory males by the sound of it surrounding a younger girl with god knows what comments and words. Disgusting. What’s wrong with men. Why are they like this.

People are viewing this from the perspective of being functioning adults. Has anyone here worked with or know very vulnerable women and children? Choices and decisions can be so different for them because they do not have the tools to make decent choices. So the just turn it off issue is not the same as you or I. I have been harassed in game, not VR but in voice comms and blocked them immediately and this has happened multiple times. I asked my male friends how many people they have blocked and most said none and a couple said one or two. I have the capacity to make a decent decision, the vulnerable don’t always. . The world of online gaming is incredibly hostile to women.

‘Just take the headset off’ - reminds me of how women were told to just not use Twitter and other SM platforms when the abuse we face on them was big news several years ago.

Completely the wrong response then and now.

No, it’s not a physical sexual attack, but it’s abusive and degrading and I can well imagine also capable of causing trauma, especially for a young person.

You lot are totally missing the point with the word, whenever something new exists for the first time in digital form the default thing is always to reference the closest physical equivalent because no suitable word exists.

Metaphor etc is the only way to come up with a relatable word that conveys some essence of what's happening. Hence recycle bins and folders/directory on your desktop and other stuff. It takes time to invent a new word, or work out if a new one is even necessary 🤷‍♂️ Using the word rape really just conveys this different to the other online shit (mainly) women put up with. It's imperfect, sure, but all metaphors are

Oh, piss off. I'm clearly not saying that at all. 😂

You made a waffling and somewhat bonkers post about being so 'in the game' that you tried to 'fly through doors' in real life which makes it sound more like you have issues than anything else. I know a lot of serious gamers and none of them have experienced anything like this.

One of my mates nearly became a racing driver in real life and he now races on the sim i-racing as a hobby. About as real as you can get. He has a proper bucket seat, three monitors (to look left and right out the windows) proper gas pressurised pedals, and a wheel with resistance when you turn at speed etc. He's literally won international championships in their pro league beating hundreds of thousands of other players, including one just before Xmas, and he never gets confused when he gets in a real car lol.

You tried to make the reach that you can be so immersed in the game that it can be psychologically akin to real life rape but it's a bonkers statement to anyone remotely sane.

I used to play online shooters for years. Was obsessed with them. 'Teabagging' was a common thing I've experienced literally hundreds of times.

I found it more funny than anything, which isn't to diminish the feelings of anyone that gets offended, but in the eyes of some I've been sexually harassed hundreds of times. It's definitely a toxic environment though, especially in these types of games where you're trying to kill another team - it encourages animosity/rivalry in a way. Tbh, that was half the fun for me. Imagining some 15yo American fat kid called Randy breaking his controller and rage quitting when I landed a beautiful headshot with the sniper. 😂

Here's a video to explain what I'm referring to. It's not explicit or anything, just shows 'teabagging' in action.

I’m not going to dismiss this or victim-blame. But I’m sure as hell going to parent-blame for letting their child enter a VR world.

It's a different type of crime. A new type of crime.

I beg to differ. I think it was the first Halo game that teabagging became famous in. That was released close to 25 years ago. Around the millennium. It was on the very first Xbox.

You can easily be 'killed' in the metaverse, especially as a gamer, yet no one seems too perturbed by that?

This is addressed in the text of the linked article, because it IS an issue to some people. But the distinction made in the article is that gamers know when signing up to play a game that their avatars may be killed; in this case, even if the game stated that nonconsensual sex could happen in the game, the victim is below the age of consent and therefore could not have consented.

It’s not rape though.

It's a clickbait headline, and the article isn't very well worded, but it does state that what is being investigated is alleged sexual assault, not alleged rape. In other jurisdictions, the same crime could possibly be considered rape, but not under Scottish, English, or NI law (the article only says UK, doesn't specifiy the legal jurisdiction).

"Take the headset off" is no use when it's already happened. It's the same as "just leave the bar". Women and girls should not be responsible for policing their whereabouts.

The psychological effects here will be damaging to some. I don't wish to reinforce the idea that's there is some hierarchy of sexual assault. I know that an encounter where I was grabbed was just what happens on a night out or not that serious, didnt mean it didn't fuck me up for a while.

As Women and girls so much of this shit is cumulative. It weighs on you and you can't break free.

The thing about sexual trauma is that because it is premeditated it can cause dissociation.
ie the victim is confused and 'stunned' so the option of switching off or retaliating is disabled.
In the case of a group of adults machinating against an unsuspecting child in a sexual manner can and frequently does lead to lasting CPTSD (or worse)
Children are not equipped to defend themselves.

WE DO take it seriously. It's the government that's decades behind in getting any sort of laws together to deal with all this shit (meanwhile it's the powerless children and women that are suffering).

Perhaps you could explain what "teabagging" means in words first? If it potentially involves sexual violence then I am not going to watch a video (explicit or not) and I am certainly not going to google it.

@TheZoehan, maybe I do have 'issues' but I'm not an underaged girl with limited real-life experience, so it's beside the point.

It's interesting that the example you gave is of a real-life racing driver who now races virtual cars. There doesn't seem much of a parallel there with a schoolgirl experiencing sexual violence for the first time in game. Unlike your pal, she wasn't recreating a past RL experience. (The men may have been.) I'm surprised you belittle the shock, bewilderment and loss of trust it would have caused.

Why do you think it's okay, and do you really think players are fair game for aggressive bastards who find their way into the same virtual space?

On the wider point: VR is used to train pilots, space crew, drivers, weapons operators and more. I really don't think it's a reach to say virtual experience affects the brain, or corporations & governments wouldn't spend all that money on it.

Imo, VR 'training' a young girl to be sexually assaulted is not a thing to dismiss.

They bounce their character up & down over the head of a character they've just killed. It's supposed to represent sticking their balls in his mouth. It's mildly amusing as a catoonified action, though the symbolism's a bit ick.

Whilst obv I'm not saying this would have been ok if she was an adult, surely if the VR characters are capable of sexual contact, it should be an 18 🐀 Ng and there's therefore the expectation that the other players are adults not children? That expectation is a significant one if we're talking about adult names using sexualised language at someone they can't see - do you have a reasonable expectation this isn't a kid?

Er thanks. Every day's a schoolday. (Digs in back of cupboard for brain bleach)

To be honest a lot of your questions could be answered with an online search, unless you are deliberately being obtuse

No sorry I found this really confusing too despite a google search. I still do. I genuinely do not understand what it means. How does this happen? Rape by definition involves penetrative sex without consent- so how does this happen in a game? I’m not being obtuse either and don’t doubt this was traumatic - im genuinely trying to understand. The other thing I don’t get is if something like this starts to happen why wouldn’t you just remove your headset or switch the game off /leave so as to avoid the situation? Please understand this is an incredibly modern phenomena so easy to not understand

Thought I had earlier on. It's when you crouch over the face of a downed opponent repeatedly to imply dipping testicles in their mouth. Not at all graphic, it's more the intention.

The below image will give you an idea of whether you'll find the video offensive. It's not really 'graphic' at all.

Yep. And I bet they are all “normal family men” in the real world. Men are fuckers. Literally.

No offence but your comprehension is terrible lol. I'm not comparing my mate to the victim. I'm comparing him to you!

You were saying how you struggled to differentiate between real life and gaming after being immersed in a realistic game and I'm saying I've never seen this in anyone before, including my mate that races using thousands of pounds worth of realistic simulation equipment.

But I can't be arsed to argue over minutia. It was a passing point and I didn't mean it as offensively as I probably sounded.