Within 60 seconds of joining Meta’s (Facebook) metaverse platform Horizon Venues, London-based Nina Jane Patel said a gang of three-four avatars sexually harassed her. “They essentially, but virtually, gang-raped my avatar and took photos as I tried to get away,” Patel, co-founder and vice-president of metaverse research Kabuni Ventures, wrote in a post on Medium.com.
She added that virtual reality had been designed so that the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual/digital experiences from the real world.
“My physiological and psychological response was as though it happened in reality,” she recalled
Nina Jane Patel, co-founder and vice-president of metaverse research at Kabuni Ventures
In an email interview with CNBC-TV18, Patel said she froze as things got out of her hand fast.
“I fumbled with the controllers to try to use the safety features, i.e. block and report. But as I was asking them to ‘stop’, ‘go away’, I realised I needed to end this as their verbal harassment and sexual innuendos were getting increasingly aggressive.”
Patel pulled off the virtual reality headset, but she could still hear her attackers’ laughter and voices coming through, saying, “don’t pretend you didn’t like it”.
She finally had to hit the power button off on the side of the headset to end the ordeal.
“I didn’t see any other avatars in the venue other than the attackers. I don’t know their identities or the avatars’ names, so I cannot go back and report or block.”
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