Police investigate virtual sex assault on girl's avatar
Police investigate virtual sex assault on girl's avatar
The incident in a virtual world reportedly left the under-16-year-old traumatised.
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 virtual incident did not result in physical harm but caused "psychological trauma", the Daily Mail has reported a source as saying. Police chiefs have called on platforms to do more to protect their users.
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The impact of the attack on the girl's avatar was said to be heightened because of the immersive nature of the VR experience.
The amount of murder I have done in gaming. I'm going away for a long time boys💀
Please don't kill people in Counter strike or they might get PTSD
The victim was in an online 'room' with a large number of fellow users when the virtual assault by several adult men took place.
Taken from the DailyMail. Neither article has details on which VR game/app she was, nor what kind of "assault" it was. The dailymail says it was "on the metaverse", but "metaverse" could be VRChat, Fortnite or fucking Second Life for all we know. Could've even been on fuckzuck's metaverse, Horizon Worlds, but isn't it the place where you don't have a bottom half and other avatars are forced to stay the equivalent of 1.5m away from you at all times?
The fact that this is even compared to real SA is so fucked up. At least on the internet or game you can leave, it's not like your forced to endure the actions or behavior of other people.
What a joke.
Real crimes are being compared to vr "crimes". Next will be thought crimes.
I just feel like this would set a negative precedent for interactions in online games. Idk tho, not a lawyer.
Oh for fucks sake
I think harassment is probably more appropriate, unless said metaverse somehow allows the sexual assault of avatars, which I don't think exists. I mean, IIRC Second Life technically has sex animations but afaik you have to strictly opt into that stuff. People can't just go around and use your avatar for it and even then it would be the question why she went into such a place & features if she didn't wanted to.
Just one count of assault? I've been teabagged online more times than I can count.
Omfg this is so absurdly stupid. What a waste of time for the police who have actual issues to be concerned with.
The article seems a bit silly, but online harassment is an actual issue and can have a big impact, especially for minors. The way it's presented, especially the Daily Mail article (“British police probe VIRTUAL rape in metaverse” and the mentioning of AI) is a significant (perhaps deliberate) misunderstanding of the problem for the sake of clicks. In reality, this situation isn't that different compared to Omgele back in the day, but instead it's compared to physical SA. I think this kind of clickbait reporting does not contribute to bringing awareness to the issue of digital harassment, nor to a greater understanding required to solve it. It's presented as a new threat (like DM likes to do), but in fact this is simply a new form of online harassment, like we've been seeing for years.
Kids as young as 8 years old are being given unsupervised access to the internet. This alone seems very unhealthy, but it also means that other individuals get access to them. Grooming and online harassment have been an issue since SMS, and probably will be. The police does not have the expertise and capacity (or perhaps motivation) required to deal with these situations. The online platforms fail at moderation, some allow users to send death threats while using some bot to block swearwords. Malicious actors rarely face any consequences online. The parents also usually don't have a clue about what their kids are doing, nor how the platforms their kids use work, which means they are unable to teach their kids what to avoid.
I believe to solve these issues, this kind of behavior should come with actual consequences. However, I don't have high hopes this will help soon. I therefore believe education also plays a role, both for the parent and their children. Kids should learn about social norms for the internet and what to do when people disregard them, and parents should have the knowledge to help them. The platforms themselves should also take action, the amount of moderators on social media is pathetic. Facebook has millions of users but only has 54 moderators (spanning all their services including Instagram) to moderate posts in my country's language. Current social media is a breeding ground for disinformation, rage, and harassment, not because it's impossible not to, but because all major platforms have switched to an engagement based algorithm.
I grabbed mossmans boobas in hl2 gmod vr the fbi are at my door help
Remember when the Internet was new? Know how kids still get pedo'd now?
Setting precedent early is important. There will be billions of people in this soon enough and without regulation, it's Westworld.
Tax dollars hard at work.
Everyone is focused on if there should be legal repercussions for this, and while that's valid, there's another point to make.
It's that sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment, etc. is so heinously awful, that even in this watered down, synthetic, polygon avatar VR version of it is enough to seriously harm someone.
Being made to feel as if you're worthless, and just a piece of meat to be ogled and used for others perverted pleasure, is so fucking terribly awful, that the Nintendo 64 version will leave you forever changed for the worse.
So I guess the meta verse finally got around to adding legs to the avatars?
Not a crime.
Bottom line is adult men were engaging sexually with a minor online. Doesn't really matter if it was VR or what. Hang them all.
I am very glad I’m not dating in this day and age.
I met my partner by “sexually assaulting” someone.
She had thrown a house party. There was a guy there causing a problem. She wanted him to leave, but didn’t want a fight. This is the first time I met my now partner, but I volunteered.
The guy that needed to leave was sitting on the floor right next to a doorway. I just pulled out the ole wang jangler and leaned against the inside of the door way. My floppy bits were mere inches from his face.
He turned his head and noticed. He made a disgusted noise and moved. I chased this guy around the party with my John Thomas hanging out. Every time he sat down somewhere, there we were. After about 30 mins of that he got the picture and left.
My partner has always said that was the moment she knew she wanted to get to know me. Just to be clear it’s not huge or anything. I’m guessing it’s a confidence thing, but yeah I scared away an asshole, and convinced a woman I am the one. All by running around a party with my spicy bits hanging out.
I have a feeling that would be frowned upon these days.
Edit: Also, when I was a homeless heroin addict. My partner was the one that took me in, and paid for my treatment. That one decision has affected my life in more ways than I probably realized.
Put her into a halo or cod lobby, show her a glimpse of what actuality harrasment let alone assault looks like.
If this woman actually thinks this was sexual assault than she's lucky to have never had been an actual victim.