Mark sees his friends, Mark plays cards, Mark admires art… In the Connect 2021 presentation at the end of October, the billionaire CEO of Facebook – now renamed Meta – presented a metaverse of benevolence and good humor. Become his new fad, this entirely virtual place, in which we are led to immerse ourselves by means of virtual reality headsets or augmented reality glasses, would be, according to Zuckerberg, the “Falls under the mobile Internet”. Work, shopping, sport… In the idea, anything would be possible… and, obviously, even harassment.
A thousand miles from the care bear vision supported by the big coms of the Californian firm, the first feedback from users and, more precisely, from users, describe a place conducive to situations of“discomfort”, harassment or even sexual assault.
Yet Horizon Worlds, one of the first versions of Facebook’s metaverse, was only officially launched last week in the United States and Canada. Inside, techies have already been able to attend comedy shows, participate in meditation sessions or indulge in writing a few lines of code to create their own game. However, in early December, report The Verge, a “bêtatesteuse”, that is to say the first user of a software or a game, who tests it and indicates to the developers the improvements to be made, explained to have been the victim of a sexual assault in reality Virtual.
On the official Facebook page of this project, she says that her avatar has been touched by another. “Sexual harassment is already something serious online, but being in virtual reality adds intensity to this type of event”, she describes, probably referring to the sometimes very realistic immersion that virtual reality allows. In addition to being “Groped”, she adds that “Other people supported this behavior” and made him feel “Isolated”.
Same story on the side of the American media Bloomberg, for which the journalist Parmy Olson was able to test the device and relate her experience in an article published on December 15. For her first jump into the virtual world, she chose an avatar close to her physical appearance “Real”. She sums up her experience in these terms: “Fun”, “exciting”, but also “Intense, tiring and often embarrassing”.
As soon as she arrived in the Horizon Venues reception hall, a metaverse module more dedicated to events, she noticed: she was the only woman among a dozen men. In a few moments, Parmy Olson recounts having been «surprise» by an avatar having zoomed in a few centimeters from her. Soon after, a group of male avatars formed around her, remaining silent. Still others took a picture of it… So many experiences which, in real life as in virtual reality, can be oppressive.
On her Twitter account, the journalist warns: if many meetings were nice, “The harassment and frightening behavior has happened often enough that I think the harassment and griefing issues [fait d’irriter volontairement et de harceler d’autres joueurs, ndlr] that have been around in games for years are coming to social virtual reality ”. With a conclusion: “Go [dans le métavers] as a woman was also deeply uncomfortable at times. ”
To protect its users from such situations, Meta offers, in Horizon Worlds, a feature allowing you to activate a security zone around your avatar. To do this, they must press a button on their virtual wrist. The voices of other users are then cut off. From “Security specialists” of the company can also find the recording of the scene in the event of a report.
Asked by The Verge on the first testimony, Vivek Sharma, vice president of Horizon Worlds, indicates that it is a “Absolutely unfortunate accident” and, that after verification, the user had not triggered the protection system in place. “For us, this is useful feedback because we want to optimize and make our security systems easy to access”, he maintains.
Note all the same: these stories of assault and sexual harassment in virtual reality worlds are far from the first. In a high-profile case in 2016, a user of the archery game QuiVr accused another player of virtually touching her chest without her consent. The experience had shocked her, especially since she had already been the victim of similar facts in the real world.
Finally, between the two, she observed, the feeling was very “similar”. To prevent history from repeating itself, the game developers then proposed to put in place a combination to get rid of the other player. Other virtual reality games use systems to mute or block users. For example, Microsoft’s AltspaceVR platform sometimes involves moderators in the form of avatars.
But legally, what to think? As recalled Numerama, even if it takes place in a virtual environment, sexual harassment can, in France, be punished with penalties ranging from one year imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros to three years and 45,000 euros, as specified article 222-16 of the penal code. If we stick to the legal definition, sexual assault – “Any sexual assault committed with violence, coercion, threat or surprise” – could also be recognized in virtual reality. Note: if the alleged acts are committed by French people, on the national territory, the fact that the metaverse is the creation of a Californian firm does not prevent the initiation of possible legal proceedings. In 2000, a bill of rights for avatars unofficial had been written by Raph Koster, an American online game developer. Perhaps it would be time for national and international authorities to seize on this idea and update it?
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