‘We want Horizon Worlds to be a safe and respectful environment, so everyone must follow our Conduct in VR Policy,’ Meta said on the day of Horizon Worlds' release. Meta told MailOnline that Horizon Worlds launched the beta last year with safety features built in from the start.Īs well as Safe Zone, these features include the ability to block and mute people, the ability to report people or content, and user complaints being able to include recordings of the incident captured by the Oculus headset.
'At the same time, readers from all perspectives grappled with understanding this act given the virtual and playful context it occurred in.'
'On the other hand, many responses empathised with her experience and called on developers to take this kind of behaviour seriously.
'There I was, being virtually groped in a snowy fortress with my brother-in-law and husband watching.'Īaron Stanton, the designer of Quivr, apologised and provided an in-game fix where users can push any offenders away using their virtual arms.Ī later review of the incident by University of Melbourne researchers said: 'Many online responses to this incident were dismissive of Belamire’s experience and, at times, abusive and misogynistic. 'Emboldened, he even shoved his hand toward my virtual crotch and began rubbing. '"Stop!" I cried. This goaded him on, and even when I turned away from him, he chased me around, making grabbing and pinching motions near my chest. In an open letter published on Medium, Belamire describes another user's 'floating hand' approaching her body before he started to virtually rub her chest. It's not the first time a user has been groped in VR – in 2016 a gamer by the name of Jordan Belamire described her experience of being virtually groped in Quivr, a VR game where players shoot zombies with arrows. 'It can be verbal, and yes, it can be a virtual experience as well.' 'I think people should keep in mind that sexual harassment has never had to be a physical thing,' said Professor Jesse Fox, a researcher of new technologies at Ohio State University, told Technology Review. While being groped in the virtual world is generally deemed less serious that in the physical world, the point is it's just another form of sexual harassment, according to another expert. 'It's part of the reason why emotional reactions can be stronger in that space, and why VR triggers the same internal nervous system and psychological responses.' 'At the end of the day, the nature of virtual-reality spaces is such that it is designed to trick the user into thinking they are physically in a certain space, that their every bodily action is occurring in a 3D environment. Meta's internal review of the incident claims that the victim should have used a safety tool called 'Safe Zone'. 'Our goal is to make Horizon Worlds safe, and we are committed to doing that work.' 'We will continue to improve our UI and to better understand how people use our tools so that users are able to report things easily and reliably. 'We want everyone in Horizon Worlds to have a positive experience with safety tools that are easy to find – and it’s never a user's fault if they don’t use all the features we offer,' Meta spokesperson Kristina Milian said. The incident was acknowledged by the company, which changed its name from Facebook to Meta in October, in line with CEO Mark Zuckerberg's new obsession with the metaverse.
'Not only was I groped last night, but there were other people there who supported this behaviour which made me feel isolated.' 'Sexual harassment is no joke on the regular internet, but being in VR adds another layer that makes the event more intense,' the unnamed beta tester posted in the official Horizon group on Facebook, as quoted by The Verge.