Mother says she was virtually groped by three male characters within seconds of entering Facebook's online world Metaverse

[PrincessNikla]

On a visit this month, the mother-of-four entered the ‘lobby’ – a virtual space serving as an entry point. But within seconds she was pursued by the men’s avatars, who groped her, subjected her to a stream of sexual innuendo and took screen shots of the attack for several minutes as she tried to flee.

She had to tear off her headset – which covers her eyes and allows her to see the metaverse as her avatar sees it – to end the ordeal.

While she could not actually feel the avatars’ hands, Mrs Patel has suffered from anxiety since the attack – and fears for the safety of her three teenage girls and other women in this lawless virtual world.

She said: ‘I entered the Horizon Venues metaverse as an avatar who looked just like me – middle-aged, blonde and dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved top.

‘The space you enter is a lobby, like a theatre foyer. Within 60 seconds, three male avatars – who all had male voices – came towards me and touched me inappropriately.

‘Before I knew what was happening, they were taking screen shots of them touching my avatar, both my upper and lower body. While doing that, they said things like, “Don’t pretend you don’t love it.”

‘I tried to move away but they followed me. I didn’t know who these people were or have the time to stay and investigate.’

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10455417/Mother-43-avatar-groped-three-male-characters-online-Metaverse.html

I haven't been on there, so cannot comment on how often this happens and if she was unlucky or if it happens a lot. I agree that the 'men' (if they were men as they were avatars) were completely out of order.

I totally agree it is horrible, but 'an ordeal' ? 'suffered from anxiety' since the attack? How hard would it be to just take off your headset to get out of it?

I'm with you Op. I've been attacked in real life, by a guy with a metal stick. I couldn't walk for a week. It was all over in 3 minutes. I had no long lasting injuries. I was upset on the night. I was not traumatised for life. It is what it is. I reported it and he got arrested. End of. I know we are all different, but getting abused/attacked in a game wouldn't bother me in the slightest. It's not real. I couldn't help wonder whether this lady has an angle - I see that she is launching a "safe" version of the game herself. Good publicity isn't it?

But also why would someone be arrested for a tweet in your opinion?

Good question:
Are most people who are arrested for tweets targeting an identifiable person? I dont know the answer, but I would guess possibly?
eg

1. twat on twitter targets JKR - has threatened to x,y,z - identifiable target

2)twat on twitter targets someone with a twitter handle completely untrackable (username123) - threatens to find and kill them...

would they get the same punishment as the threats to JKR Are they 'as bad as each other' . Or is scenario 1 more serious?

@BlondeDogLady

I'm with you Op. I've been attacked in real life, by a guy with a metal stick. I couldn't walk for a week. It was all over in 3 minutes. I had no long lasting injuries. I was upset on the night. I was not traumatised for life. It is what it is. I reported it and he got arrested. End of. I know we are all different, but getting abused/attacked in a game wouldn't bother me in the slightest. It's not real. I couldn't help wonder whether this lady has an angle - I see that she is launching a "safe" version of the game herself. Good publicity isn't it?

There’s a lot of people who develop PTSD after traumatic events like the one you experienced. Equally, there are many who don’t develop PTSD. The mental health outcome is not always directly correlated with the event.

Calling this sexual assault devalues actual sexual assault. It doesnt mean what those men did was ok, but sexual assault involves touching. They didn't touch her. If anything it was sexual harassment.

Some of you will get blamed but I agree. Harassment, fair enough

I highly doubt it is sexually motivated, and that these men got any kind of sexual thrill from this, but I completely understand the shock of it, and the hopelessness that men think this is kind of thing to joke about, or that it's acceptable to intimidate women like this

@mooongooose

Some of you will get blamed but I agree. Harassment, fair enough

I highly doubt it is sexually motivated, and that these men got any kind of sexual thrill from this, but I completely understand the shock of it, and the hopelessness that men think this is kind of thing to joke about, or that it's acceptable to intimidate women like this

You don't think men get a sexual kick out of harassing and intimidating women?

I don’t understand why so many people are minimising this. Call it harassment or whatever you like. Whatever it is, women should not have been to subjected to this, be it in real life or the virtual world. It may be low level but it builds up.
Yes, of course worse things happen. I don’t know why we have to make it a competition. Some people experience upsetting events that genuinely affect them very deeply. We shouldn’t minimise because there’s always someone worse off than you.

@mooongooose

Some of you will get blamed but I agree. Harassment, fair enough

I highly doubt it is sexually motivated, and that these men got any kind of sexual thrill from this, but I completely understand the shock of it, and the hopelessness that men think this is kind of thing to joke about, or that it's acceptable to intimidate women like this

You don't spend much time online then and obviously haven't read the articles from journalists who also tried the Metaverse.

Abusers are seeing the Metaverse as a place they can verbally and sexually assault women and children with no repercussions. Now some of you might be fine with that. The social media companies might be fine with it. But women don't need to be 'fine' with it. It is abuse and if the social media companies thought virtual reality was just like imagining then they wouldn't be ploughing fortunes into VR.
We don't need to support or facilitate companies making more channels where women and children can be abused with no consequences. Look at the victim blaming and minimising that's already started on this thread. All of this is about normalising and minimising abuse. At least the undercover police officers will find it easier to track and find the abusers and apologists. But I genuinely think women should boycott the platform.
It might even be worth writing to prominent gamers asking them to boycott it too. There has to be a line. There has to be a point where we say women's and children's safety even online is more important than perverts getting their kicks.

@PrincessNikla

But also why would someone be arrested for a tweet in your opinion?

Good question:
Are most people who are arrested for tweets targeting an identifiable person? I dont know the answer, but I would guess possibly?
eg

1. twat on twitter targets JKR - has threatened to x,y,z - identifiable target

2)twat on twitter targets someone with a twitter handle completely untrackable (username123) - threatens to find and kill them...

would they get the same punishment as the threats to JKR Are they 'as bad as each other' . Or is scenario 1 more serious?

Tbh I don’t know if people tweeting to JKR were arrested but this was for incitement to racial hatred

More here www.report-it.org.uk/student_pleads_guilty_to_sending_racist_tweets

It wasn’t a threat but it was offensive and pretty awful so I wonder why women can’t get similar outcomes

That’s just a tweet though, not physical harm as some have talked about this meeting

Another thing is without repercussions online behaviour can get tend to extreme, whether that should be dealt with on some level by society

Just questions really, I think this is still being formed.

To me, if it happens in the virtual world, it's not real. I'm not talking about real things being sent digitally - rape threats, death threats, CSA images and so on - but artificially created worlds are not real.

It may become possible to sexually assault someone virtually - I remember a BBC report 20+ years ago where people were wearing body suits that allowed them to simulate touch over the internet, the female participant said she enjoyed the sensation of the male participant stroking her leg. In that regard someone could theoretically use a robot to rape someone. But then, by it being a physical thing, it's no longer virtual.

I don't think the technology currently exists that allows someone to be unwillingly groped though. All that could happen is a person uses their avatar to simulate groping another person's avatar. To me, that's not groping. It might be unpleasant but to call it sexual assault trivialises a serious matter.

I would draw the analogy of a simulated racing or flying game. If I sim race a car and deliberately drive the wrong way round the track trying to wreck people, it's a dick move but it's not going to land me with the prison sentence that I'd get if I did it in real life. It's not real. It's not the same thing.

@Mickarooni

I don’t understand why so many people are minimising this. Call it harassment or whatever you like. Whatever it is, women should not have been to subjected to this, be it in real life or the virtual world. It may be low level but it builds up. Yes, of course worse things happen. I don’t know why we have to make it a competition. Some people experience upsetting events that genuinely affect them very deeply. We shouldn’t minimise because there’s always someone worse off than you.

Agree, it's not a competition of who has it worse. This behavior should be seen as unacceptable. But sadly the victim blaming and minimising is strong on here.

@purpleboy

So you want to get offended at everything. No, I don't think the three men on Facebook metaverse had their penises out masturbating or were aroused by this, do you?

That's not to minimise the experience, as I actually said, I get the shock and disgust. It's about intimidation, not a sexual thrill. I don't get how that's controversial, really, but of course anyone who disagrees is wicked.

I personally don't care enough to respond further because the men themselves are assholes, but yeah, I don't think this has a sexual motivation.

@ShinyHappyPoster

I'm only talking about this specific case, nobody said it's not messed up, it's obviously upsetting that people think this is a joke and you wonder what else they have said or done.

Sexual comments to children, I'm sure, are already a crime. Literally nobody debates that. People who do such should have their hard drive checked because that is distrusting.

@MorningStarling

I would draw the analogy of a simulated racing or flying game. If I sim race a car and deliberately drive the wrong way round the track trying to wreck people, it's a dick move but it's not going to land me with the prison sentence that I'd get if I did it in real life. It's not real. It's not the same thing.

I think that is where I am coming from in my OP. Its not real, and we know its not real. Of course its not acceptable, and shouldn't be happening, and we should all do our best to stamp out shitty behaviour.

It’s probably not arrest level

But then again the precedent set by the link below against ‘trolling’ hatred online is a stark reminder that unless you do something some will do whatever and it will generally be against the same groups

[quote mooongooose]@purpleboy

So you want to get offended at everything. No, I don't think the three men on Facebook metaverse had their penises out masturbating or were aroused by this, do you?

That's not to minimise the experience, as I actually said, I get the shock and disgust. It's about intimidation, not a sexual thrill. I don't get how that's controversial, really, but of course anyone who disagrees is wicked.

I personally don't care enough to respond further because the men themselves are assholes, but yeah, I don't think this has a sexual motivation. [/quote]
Not sure why you would jump to "offended" because I pointed out your ridiculous comment than men don't get sexual kicks out of intimidating women🤷🏽‍♀️
Just seems very naive to me that's all, thought it might be worth bringing to your attention that yes men do harass and intimidate to get sexual kicks out of it, you know in the spirit of education and all that.

Men who want us to believe their dominating behaviour doesn't have a sexual component cant explain why they don't act that way towards other men.

[quote mooongooose]@purpleboy

So you want to get offended at everything. No, I don't think the three men on Facebook metaverse had their penises out masturbating or were aroused by this, do you?

That's not to minimise the experience, as I actually said, I get the shock and disgust. It's about intimidation, not a sexual thrill. I don't get how that's controversial, really, but of course anyone who disagrees is wicked.

I personally don't care enough to respond further because the men themselves are assholes, but yeah, I don't think this has a sexual motivation. [/quote]
No, I don't think the three men on Facebook metaverse had their penises out masturbating or were aroused by this, do you?
Why do you think that wouldn't be the case? The journalist involved in one of the articles seemed to think that was exactly what was happening.

Disgusting behaviour from these men. They should be banned There needs to be much harder sanctions for online abuse.

Just because something isn't face to face or physical doesn't mean it's harmless.

Years ago I worked in a call centre, it was very common for the female staff to get calls that were sexually inappropriate. They were encouraged to terminate the calls immediately but they still found the calls upsetting, at least one member of staff changed roles so that she didn't deal with incoming calls because of it.

@XenoBitch

I didnt think (before this thread) you would be in danger, but that doesnt really gel with the experiences mentioned above?

You could stay in VR for hours and have several twatty blokes/kids "grope" you.. you are not in danger and you never were in danger.
No one can hurt you in VR! It is impossible, as it is not real.

I have been sexually assaulted in real life, and "groped" in VR. They are not the same at all. It is insulting to say they are the same.

It could easily fall under malicious communication.

You know, the same as facebook bullying, tweeting etc etc. Same kind of behaviour, same level of harm. And that is ALREADY an offence.

You may be stoutly defending VR as a legitimate hobby, that doesn't mean you have to put up with men's poor behaviour as some kind admittance tax!

Some more information

www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/25/ive-seen-the-metaverse-and-i-dont-want-it

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/29/the-metaverse-is-dystopian-but-to-big-tech-its-a-business-opportunity

@Thelnebriati

Men who want us to believe their dominating behaviour doesn't have a sexual component cant explain why they don't act that way towards other men.

Oh, yes. Very much this.

Bumping because

This is so wild. Facebook/Meta's Manager of Community Development, Jeren A. Miles, was allegedly caught in an amateur child sex sting. YouTube channel "Predator Catchers Indianapolis" live-streamed their interrogation of him. Read my breaking report: t.co/V0iePnkwKR t.co/D1aw1BDdeP

twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1494455923049390080?t=mpczoj47vE_qfR-eTu9I9w&s=19

Head of community development.