Woman, 21, is 'virtually RAPED' by a stranger in Meta's metaverse app

A woman was 'virtually raped' by a stranger in Meta's Horizon Worlds metaverse app while another user 'watched and passed around a bottle of vodka', a new report claims.

SumOfUs, a non-profit that campaigns to curb the growing power of corporations, sent a 21-year-old researcher into the virtual world this month.

About an hour into using the platform, her avatar was sexually assaulted during a 'disorientating and confusing experience'.

The researcher, who is unnamed, said: 'It happened so fast I kind of disassociated. One part of my brain was like wtf is happening, the other part was like this isn't a real body, and another part was like, this is important research.'

Speaking to MailOnline, a Meta spokesperson highlighted that the researcher did not have the Personal Boundary feature on – a safety tool that's turned on by default and prevents non-friends from coming within four feet of your avatar.

'In Horizon Worlds, Personal Boundary is default on at almost 4ft for non-friends to make it easier to avoid unwanted interactions,' the spokesperson said.

'We don't recommend turning off the safety feature with people you do not know.'

What is the metaverse? The 'metaverse' is a set of virtual spaces where you can game, work and communicate with other people who aren't in the same physical space as you. Facebook explained: 'You'll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more. 'It's not necessarily about spending more time online — it's about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.'While Facebook is leading the charge with the metaverse, it explained that it isn't a single product one company can build alone. 'Just like the internet, the metaverse exists whether Facebook is there or not,' it added. 'And it won't be built overnight. Many of these products will only be fully realized in the next 10-15 years.'

Horizon Worlds was released by Meta in December, and allows users to gather with others, play games and build their own virtual worlds.

It's an early step in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's ambition to transform the platform into a 'metaverse' – a collective virtual shared space featuring avatars of real people.

In a new report released this week, titled 'Metaverse: another cesspool of toxic content', SumOfUs details what happened when a young researcher tested the app using an Oculus headset.

The researcher went in with a female-appearing and female-sound... (Read more)

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