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[cormack12]

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67865327

Police are investigating a virtual sexual assault of a girl's avatar, the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has said.
Donna Jones said she had learned that a complaint was made in 2023, triggering a police inquiry.

The impact of the attack on the girl's avatar was said to be heightened because of the immersive nature of the VR experience.
According to an unnamed senior officer familiar with the matter who spoke to the paper the victim, under 16 at the time, suffered psychological trauma "similar to that of someone who has been physically raped".

In 2022, researcher Nina Jane Patel revealed she was abused in a virtual world operated by Meta called Horizon Venues (now part of Horizon Worlds), likening it to sexual assault.

Recalling the experience, Ms Patel told the same programme that she was "surrounded by three to four male-sounding and male-representing avatars, who started sexually harassing me in a verbal sense and then sexually assaulting my avatar".

She said they had used misogynistic language and "continued to touch my avatar in a way that can only be described as a sexual assault of my avatar".

The BBC has not yet confirmed on which platform the attack on the young girl's avatar took place but Meta has said in a statement: "The kind of behaviour described has no place on our platform, which is why for all users we have an automatic protection called personal boundary, which keeps people you don't know a few feet away from you.

 

[cormack12]

Recalling the experience, Ms Patel told the same programme that she was "surrounded by three to four male-sounding and male-representing avatars, who started sexually harassing me in a verbal sense and then sexually assaulting my avatar".

She said they had used misogynistic language and "continued to touch my avatar in a way that can only be described as a sexual assault of my avatar".

 

[Guilty_AI]

Oi, got a license for that VR set?

 

[BennyBlanco]

 

[SmokedMeat]

My God there’s actual footage of it.

 

[simpatico]

England had a good run. Had a business trip there in the early 2000s, and then again in 2021. The difference was absolutely staggering in such a short period of time.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

I'm getting to that age where I have to read some of this shit at least twice to even attempt to understand the "bad" in this dystopian word salad.

 

[Saber]

...


How can someone "rape" in meta? I'm reading and having a really difficult time trying to understand...theres no way this exist, theres no touch, no real contact or anything to do with sex.

Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[TheDraconian]

"The kind of behaviour described has no place on our platform, which is why for all users we have an automatic protection called personal boundary, which keeps people you don't know a few feet away from you.

 

[Danteyke223]

England had a good run. Had a business trip there in the early 2000s, and then again in 2021. The difference was absolutely staggering in such a short period of time.

I'm always laughing at the fact that as an Eastern European living here, we got so much shit for quote on quote immigration and running the country.
Hint... it ain't us

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Had to read that all the way through and click the article to even begin to comprehend what is going on.

This is one of the weirdest fucking things I've ever heard of. Tax payers money is going toward this kind of shit? Stop it, the police should just drop this crap and tell that fucking idiot to grow up.

The world has gone mad. Next we'll be hearing about how a bunch of cunts seeking therapy for the amount of virtual tea bagging they had to endure after being killed in Halo 2 all those years ago. This is just bananas.

 

[SJRB]

VIRTUAL SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A GIRL'S AVATAR

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

I have no doubt these virtual spaces have some real cretins on them that need to be caught, but still you'd be better off heavily regulating these services firstly to protect children by restricting access than wasting precious police resources on these kinds of cases.

 

[Fake]

Is this a joke? How can this even possible?

Avatars in this game have only half of their body.


Wasting tax money on something thats is not even real is mind blowing.

 

[Deerock71]

2024:

 

[mitch1971]

I played Tekken once. In an MP lobby someone beat me to the ground then someone shouted finish him! I'm calling the police to report an assault.

 

[Skifi28]

Verbal abuse is one thing, but sexual assault because they touched your avatar? It's a brave new world.

 

[Ogbert]

As someone who has the misfortune of living in London, we are absolutely riddled with cunts these days.

Riddled.

 

[E-Cat]

If you get raped in VR, you get raped in real life

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

that's, some meta-verse shit

 

[Revolutionary]

Meanwhile, in MK1:

 

[Joshmyersbv]

Meanwhile, in MK1:

Lol I remember back in the metal gear portable ops days they had multiplayer lobbies where people had sex with their avatars. Shit was so fucking stupid.

 

[Putonahappyface]

This brings back fond memories of me chasing people around Playstation Home, dry humping randomly like a crazed bunny rabbit.

 

[Papa_Wisdom]

 

[Tams]

I'm so sorry for the state of my country.

Some bobbies came by the cul-de-sac I live on this evening and didn't even know where they were going. The address they had was a farm currently being renovated, so no one even lives there at the moment. Also the only police I've seen around for months.

On topic: moron girl shouldn't have even been on Horizon Worlds.

ffs

 

[j0hnnix]

2024:

 

[ManaByte]

 

[Flutta]

See. This is why Sony is afraid of making a new PlayStation Home.

 

[SidViscous]

What a waste of police resources, there are people out there with unlicensed spoons!

 

[Bojji]

UK police doing important things again

 

[Alpha Male]

 

[PonyStation4]

Was the headset screwed onto her head? If you don't like a game then just take it off

 

[Pejo]

FUCK, I just played Zelda and killed a few moblins and a a Yiga ninja.

Am I going to go to jail for murder? (circle one) Y/N

 

[Power Pro]

I guess I should be on sex offenders list for all those times I would do thrust motions behind people in Phantasy Star Online lobbies on Dreamcast cuz I thought it was funny...

 

[RickMasters]

jeez….. next thing you know, people are gonna report getting their assses kicked on COD multiple times as homicide.


What is the world coming too?

 

[Evolved1]

The title is stupid, but the actual content doesn’t seem especially controversial. The actual girl was a juvenile and that behavior is not acceptable. It’s the job of police and courts to investigate. If the claims do not show merit, they will be dismissed. That’s how it works.

 

[MudoSkills]

I know this is ridiculous but it's not like these police officers would be doing good work if they were investigating something else. Ideal if you need someone to turn up three hours after you get robbed and tell you that they can't do anything about it though.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Is ERA collectively seeking the death penalty yet and then going on ACAB anarchist rants in the next thread?

 

[Sojiro]

I had to read this a couple times thinking this might be satire.....it is not....it really fucking is not. I guess taking off the headset was a concept way beyond the girl.

 

[simpatico]

I'm always laughing at the fact that as an Eastern European living here, we got so much shit for quote on quote immigration and running the country.
Hint... it ain't us

Eastern Europe might be the final frontier in the not so distant future. Certainly the main part of the world I'm eyeballing to potentially move to.

 

[Ronin_7]

WTF did i just read

 

[Pejo]

The title is stupid, but the actual content doesn’t seem especially controversial. The actual girl was a juvenile and that behavior is not acceptable. It’s the job of police and courts to investigate. If the claims do not show merit, they will be dismissed. That’s how it’s works.

I think a better takeaway from this would be to

A) set age limits for interaction in these types of games/experiences (she shouldn't be anywhere near this as a minor for instance) and
B) have better in-game methods for blocking/reporting problematic players.

I don't want to go all slippery slope defending some shitheads that were being gross here, but there should be a VERY clear line between actual crimes and "virtual" ones.

 

[RickMasters]

FUCK, I just played Zelda and killed a few moblins and a a Yiga ninja.

Am I going to go to jail for murder? (circle one) Y/N

On behalf of all people who identify as moblins….. yes. How dare you. Moblins have rights too. I’m also outraged. Im gonna snitch on you to the left.

 

[STARSBarry]

For fucks sake I'm writing to my MP. Absolute fucking waste of money when police can't even respond to most burglaries right now within 24 hours.

Real fucking crimes with actual fucking consequences.

 

[DavidGzz]

Bad cyber touch.

 

[Evolved1]

I think a better takeaway from this would be to

A) set age limits for interaction in these types of games/experiences (she shouldn't be anywhere near this as a minor for instance) and
B) have better in-game methods for blocking/reporting problematic players.

I don't want to go all slippery slope defending some shitheads that were being gross here, but there should be a VERY clear line between actual crimes and "virtual" ones.

Yeah, it’s a reasonable take.

 

[pqueue]

i figured if anyone was going to love a bit of teabagging, it would be the Brits with their obsession over tea.

 

[lughnasadh123]

The avatar angle is weird and I'm honestly not even sure where to land on that. But verbally harassing, especially sexually, an underaged girl is a fucking no go.

 

[Alexios]

The avatar angle is weird and I'm honestly not even sure where to land on that. But verbally harassing, especially sexually, an underaged girl is a fucking no go.

Seems most people above are fine with it as long as the person has the option to go offline since that all makes it fake, no kid has ever been traumatised, groomed or coerced to suicide or whatever else by things happening in any form other than personal interaction within the same room I guess.

Or maybe this can be dismissed even if it happens in the same room if say, a little girl draws herself and then they go draw themselves doing things to the drawing, that should be totally fine too I guess, the kid can just not look at the picture shown to her. All very logical responses to such incidents.