UK Police are currently investigating a case where a 16-year-old girl’s virtual reality (VR) avatar was ‘gang-raped’ in a metaverse game.
The girl was using a Virtual Reality (VR) headset in an immersive game when her avatar was allegedly assaulted by avatars representing several men, the Daily Mail has reported.
While the victim did not experience physical harm, the emotional and psychological impact is being treated seriously by law enforcement, British officials said.
“There is an emotional and psychological impact on the victim that is longer-term than any physical injuries,” a senior officer familiar with the case told The New York Post.
UK authorities fear it might be impossible to prosecute under existing laws, which define sexual assault as physical touching in a sexual manner without consent.
UK Home Secretary James Cleverly has voiced support for the investigation, stressing the significance of the psychological trauma inflicted upon the girl and warning against underestimating the seriousness of such virtual acts. “I know it is easy to dismiss this as being not real, but the whole point of these virtual environments is they are incredibly immersive,” he told LBC’s “Nick Ferrari at Breakfast” program.
“And we’re talking about a child here, and a child who has gone through sexual trauma. It had a very significant psychological effect, and we should be very, very careful about being dismissive of this,” he added.
