Woman Claims She Was Virtually 'Groped' & 'Gang-Raped' Minutes After Entering Metaverse

A woman has shared a horrible experience claiming that her avatar in metaverse was virtually sexually assaulted and gang-raped by other users.

This mother named Nina Jane Patel recounted the entire incident in a blog post in Medium claiming that all of this happened within seconds of her joining the virtual world. ¡°Within 60 seconds of joining¡ªI was verbally and sexually harassed¡ª3-4 male avatars, with male voices, essentially, but virtually gang-raped my avatar and took photos," she said.

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The 43-year-old added how she watched her avatar get sexually assaulted by a handful of male avatars, who took photos and sent her comments like "don¡¯t pretend you didn¡¯t love it.¡±

Anyone who had logged into Facebook¡¯s version of the ¡®metaverse¡¯ ¨C an online world in which users¡¯ avatars meet and interact and explore a fast-growing network of virtual locations such as cities, country scenes or cafes could see this torture in full view.

"A horrible experience that happened so fast and before I could even think about putting the safety barrier in place. I froze," she added. "It was surreal. It was a nightmare."

Daily Mail

She told The Daily Mail that she ripped off her headset quickly to end the experience and has been suffering from anxiety since.

After Nina posted the experience many people told her not to choose a female avatar next time or that she shouldn't be affected by it because it wasn't real.

The London-based woman is vice president of Metaverse Research for Kabuni Ventures, an immersive technology company. Meta released Horizon Worlds to everyone 18 years and older in the United States and Canada on Dec. 9 after an invite-only beta test a year ago.

Meta even responded to Ms Patel's experience and said there are technical barriers that can be put in place to prevent this from happening.

"We're sorry to hear this happened. We want everyone in Horizon Venues to have a positive experience, and easily find the safety tools that can help in a situation like this - and help us investigate and take action," a Meta spokesperson told Insider.

Daily Mail

"Horizon Venues should be safe, and we are committed to building it that way. We will continue to make improvements as we learn more about how people interact in these spaces, especially when it comes to helping people report things easily and reliably."

There is a safety system that can restrict other avatars from getting into your avatar's space. However, for Nina, this incident happened so quickly that she couldn't use the safety system.

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