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?

’Playing RPG games with chat? Lewd messages. Linked In? A hook-up site, apparently. A leading gardening forum, FFS? Apparently, a woman opening an account on there = her wanting to be sent lewd messages and pictures of tiny, ugly penises.’

That’s the reality of being obviously female online. And yet there are still regular threads about ‘Why are women without children on MN?’

And for people to say that advising women to “take off their headset” is equivalent to advising them to carry a pepper spray or rape alarm - are you joking? I can take off a headset any time. I just put my arms up and remove it.
Have you tried defending yourself against someone who is twice your size and has kicked you to the ground before you’d even noticed they were there? All the pepper sprays in the world won’t save you then.

I’m disgusted by this thread, I really am.

(for the same reasons as someone said above, is it diluting the seriousness of actual physical SA)

I think this statement is problematic in the same way dimissing covert or "mild" racism is, in case it "dilutes" the seriouness of full out racist attacks @PrincessNikla

It's all bad and it all leads to escalation of these kind of behaviour.

The blocking facility may be there, but this is only after the 'event', you've already heard the disturbing words being said to you through your headset, a real, human, male voice, speaking through their mic to you. And you've also already seen whatever they are doing to your avatar on your screen. You can have all the blocking facilities you like , but the damage has already been done.

Maybe women, upon entering these virtual reality platforms, should immediately block everyone and cross the road to avoid being interacted with.

In any case, even if you can block somebody, I bet it only takes a few minutes to create another account and a different name.

If only we had the block facility in real life. What a pleasure it would be to go about our everyday, or night, life and simply block people off, before any harm is actually done

cant get too worked up about this frankly , its not an actual assualt as in real life , the only anxiety i would have would be worrying about my daughter playing this , surely thats what she means when she refers to ongoing anxiety .
its not really a surprise that a game such as this would have people like that playing it

@Rosebel

The men aviators were out of order but I'm not sure sexual assault is the right term. She wasn't actually assaulted. It was her aviator. Cartoons can't be accused of sexual assault.

In this case the cartoons are representing real people though. They aren’t just drawings.

@celiamary

Another piece of new technology I won't try to use then. Nokia phones anyone?

I've still got mine. I never went down the --stupid- smartphone route.

You can't beat a Nokia. I would say I have set it to the original ring tone, but it doesn't give me any choice.

I can't imagine why anyone would want to enter a metaverse of any description.

Is there a virtual boot to kick the predators in the nads before you hit safe exit?

Or perhaps a virtual cattle prod?

its not really a surprise that a game such as this would have people like that playing it

Yeah, good idea let's keep the bar nice and low and just turn a blind eye, fantastic.

In this case the cartoons are representing real people though. They aren’t just drawings

You can "kill" other people in VR too. Should that be a crime?

@RantyAunty

Is there a virtual boot to kick the predators in the nads before you hit safe exit?

Or perhaps a virtual cattle prod?

This is actually what I was thinking. In real life I couldn’t have tried to fight off my attacker, because he’d have killed me. But if I was sitting in my warm cosy safe living room, wearing a fancy head set, with zero actual risk to my life, I’d have enjoyed giving him a kicking.

When I first heard about the metaverse, this was the first thing I thought of - how long before people are virtually attacked? It is deeply disturbing and distressing. If you think 'it's not real, only virtual' then you really don't understand nor have you ever played in a virtual world.

I have a VR headset but I don’t use it for anything where strangers could interact with me. Mainly wildlife stuff (utterly different to watching it on TV especially underwater stuff) travel, virtual city tours plus Netflix and Amazon prime video and virtual meditation/relaxation.

@itsgoodtobehome

I agree with you OP. It's probably my age, but I really can't fathom how someone can be traumatised by a pretend event that didn't actually happen in real life. It's like being traumatised by Tom being hit over the head by Jerry when you are watching cartoons.

Or watching films/TV dramas which often contain some quite realistic violence. Just reach for the remote and turn it off!!

@XenoBitch

In this case the cartoons are representing real people though. They aren’t just drawings

You can "kill" other people in VR too. Should that be a crime?

Not if it’s a game where the risk of being “killed” is part of the game experience.

@CrunchyCarrot

When I first heard about the metaverse, this was the first thing I thought of - how long before people are virtually attacked? It is deeply disturbing and distressing. If you think 'it's not real, only virtual' then you really don't understand nor have you ever played in a virtual world.

I have been using VR for a long time. I know it is not real. Yes, people can give you verbal agro, but no one can physically hurt you. That is impossible. Like a pp said, it is insulting to compare it to actual real physical sexual assault.

Why are so many men so fucking disgusting? What did those arseholes even get out of that? Is it just them sending a message to women that even in a vr game they are not safe, it's a man's world and any female entering it is fair game? Gross

@wobytide

So in response to an attack she experienced this month she is creating an alternative that she has been working on since 2020 according to Companies House. It's evident that the "Metaverse" has issues and needs to get its controls in order but this article feels like some sort of marketing pitch disguised as a story now

"She is now creating Kabuni, her own educational metaverse for children aged eight to 16, with stricter parental controls.
‘This technology will be prevalent in our children’s futures, so my mission is to create safe and secure virtual-reality experiences,’ she said."

Yep it does feel like a story to get publicity for her business to be honest.

The online harms bill should maybe tackle this but it's a freedom of expression and privacy argument. Should Facebook know 100% who is behind every account (and how is that done 100%). How do you enforce that for every country in the world?

Should governments be able up access that information?
But then what if it's a dodgy government wanting information on dissidents?
Lots of contrasting opinions

@XenoBitch

In this case the cartoons are representing real people though. They aren’t just drawings

You can "kill" other people in VR too. Should that be a crime?

This clearly isn't the same thing?

Being approached by avaters of men who are describing how they want to torture and kill you in their real voices, would be comparable, and I can understand why it would be upsetting.

Again, not sure why all the minimising.

@VestofAbsurdity

its not really a surprise that a game such as this would have people like that playing it

Yeah, good idea let's keep the bar nice and low and just turn a blind eye, fantastic.

well frankly as its an adult rated game , its virtual and you can actually hear the other people talking its interesting to know how you can raise it really , the potential for there to be lots of creeps and perverts on there is inevitable , its a miracle its not being used as a hook up site , except it likely is . im confused how anyone logging on to play this shit would expect it to be like brookhaven roleplay

@celiamary

Another piece of new technology I won't try to use then. Nokia phones anyone?

count me in. tech these days is horrifying and the less i and my family use it the better

I literally don't know what this means

Can anyone explain it to me simply?

From a place of zero knowledge, it's really confusing. Her experience was a simulated attack, is what I'm understanding.

@PrincessNikla

I know everyone is different, which is why I have started a post on it to see how other women feel.

For this instance, I feel its not really cyberbullying? Isnt cyberbullying targeted attacks on a known person (again, I am open to being educated on this) This was an attack on a virtual character, there is no link to the person in real life, there is no (stated) follow up stalking or danger to life.

I think this is really minimising. That person had a really dreadful experience, you seem to believe it is acceptable for people to be sexually harrassed so long as there is no physical contact? Because the woman was sexually harrassed by multiple people.

Whose side are you on - perpetrators who sexually harass or the people who are sexually harrassed?

Also confused what on earth it has to do with upskirting

I disagree that serious crimes are trivialised by also caring about less serious crimes.

We do not ignore ABH because it is less serious than GBH.
We do not ignore muggings because they are less serious than armed robbery.