Hyderabad: A case has been registered to the British police for allegedly gang raping of a girl’s avatar in a virtual reality game, in what is believed to be the first probe of its kind involving the metaverse, the Daily Mail first reported.
According to the report, the alleged victim, aged 16, was wearing a virtual reality headset in an immersive game when her avatar, an animated representation of her, was raped by those of several men.
The teen did not sustain any physical injuries, but she may have suffered trauma similar to someone who’d been raped in real life, investigating officers told the outlet. "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 said.
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.
The case is believed to be the first virtual sexual offence investigated by the police. The investigation has raised questions about whether police should be using time and limited resources to investigate metaverse crimes while struggling with a substantial backlog of in-person rape cases.
A senior officer familiar with the case told the Daily Mail that the teen experienced psychological trauma similar to that of someone who has been physically raped. There is an emotional and psychological impact on the victim that is longer term than any physical injuries. It poses a number of challenges for law enforcement given current legislation is not set up for this.
Home Secretary James Cleverly defended the trailblazing the virtual reality game rape probe. "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.
Cleverly also emphasised that someone willing to rape a child’s avatar in a video game may well be someone that could go on to do terrible things in the physical realm.
Ian Critchley, the lead for child protection and abuse investigation at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, reiterated Cleverly’s words, telling the Mail that the metaverse creates a “gateway” for predators to victimize children.
There have been several reports of virtual sex crimes in Horizon Worlds, a free VR game operated by Facebook’s parent company, Meta. A senior police investigator told the Mail that the metaverse has become “rife” with online sex crimes and other types of offenses, including virtual thefts, but so far there have been no prosecutions in the UK.
There has been no response by Meta on this case.
