{"id":1415031,"date":"2022-04-01T13:59:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T17:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1415031"},"modified":"2022-04-01T13:59:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T17:59:40","slug":"a-sense-of-entrapment-companies-deal-with-worries-of-sexual-harassment-in-virtual-reality-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-sense-of-entrapment-companies-deal-with-worries-of-sexual-harassment-in-virtual-reality-world\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Sense Of Entrapment\u2019: Companies Deal With Worries Of Sexual Harassment In Virtual Reality World"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fa-sense-of-entrapment-companies-deal-with-worries-of-sexual-harassment-in-virtual-reality-world%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1415031&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/Meta-scaled-e1648830593939.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>Metaverse architects for Meta and Microsoft are struggling to figure out how to prevent accusations of sexual harassment in the virtual reality (VR) world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The issue came to the spotlight when VR user Nina Jane Patel claimed she was sexually harassed last November by several male avatars in the VR game \u201cHorizon Venues,\u201d a VR world designed by Facebook\u2019s parent company Meta. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI entered the shared space and almost immediately three or four male avatars came very close to me, so there was a sense of entrapment,\u201d Patel <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/metaverse-builders-grapple-sex-harassment-101201420.html\"><span>told<\/span><\/a><span> media outlet AFP. \u201cTheir voices started verbally and sexually harassing me, with sexual innuendos.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Patel, who works for a company that develops \u201cchild-friendly metaverse experiences,\u201d accused the avatars of touching and groping her without consent while one avatar took virtual photos of the incident. <\/span><span>\u201c<\/span><span>The male avatars were taunting her, saying \u2018don\u2019t pretend you didn\u2019t like it\u2019 and \u2018that\u2019s why you came here,\u2019\u201d AFP reported. Patel took off the headset she was using to experience the VR world but could still hear the avatars \u201ctaunting\u201d her through her speakers. She says it was \u201cnothing short of sexual assault.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Katherine Cross, a PhD student at the University of Washington who has researched \u201conline harassment,\u201d believes sexual harassment in VR translates to victimization in the real world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span> \u201cWhen it comes to harassment in virtual reality \u2014 for instance, a sexual assault \u2014 it can mean that in the first instant your body treats it as real before your conscious mind can catch up and affirm this is not physically occurring,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Now, Meta and Microsoft are developing tools to help prevent these encounters in the metaverse. Microsoft simply removed dating spaces from its VR world, but Meta has been working on more specific changes within VR. On February 4, Meta rolled out what it calls \u201cPersonal Boundary,\u201d a rule in the VR world that prevents avatars from coming closer than two feet of each other, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.verdict.co.uk\/metaverse-meta-sexual-assault\/\"><span>according<\/span><\/a><span> to Verdict. Meta also came out with a feature for \u201cHorizon Worlds\u201d that makes an avatar\u2019s hands invisible when it gets close to another avatar. Also, avatars can only be seen from the waist up \u201c<\/span><span>to avoid \u2018below the belt\u2019 harassment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some engineers believe the problem of sexual harassment allegations in the metaverse will go away on its own. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI think the harassment issue is one that will actually get resolved because people will self-select which platform they use,\u201d said Louis Rosenberg who worked on the first augmented reality system for the U.S. Air Force in 1992.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Rosenberg isn\u2019t as concerned with sexual harassment in the VR world as he is with companies encroaching on individuals\u2019 privacy by collecting \u201call kinds of personal data, from users\u2019 eye movements and heart rate, to their real-time interactions,\u201d AFP reported. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To prevent this level of data collection, Rosenberg believes users would be more protected if VR platforms used a subscription-based model instead of relying on advertising.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWe need to change the business model,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Become a member now and join our mission.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Metaverse architects for Meta and Microsoft are struggling to figure out how to prevent accusations of sexual harassment in the virtual reality (VR) world.\u00a0The issue came to the spotlight when<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":324,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1415031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1415031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1415031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1415031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}