Police are investigating a virtual sexual assault of a girl’s avatar, the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has said.

Donna Jones said she had learned that a complaint was made in 2023, triggering a police inquiry.

The virtual incident did not result in physical harm but caused “psychological trauma”, the Daily Mail has reported a source as saying. Police chiefs have called on platforms to do more to protect their users.

The impact of the attack on the girl’s avatar was said to be heightened because of the immersive nature of the VR experience.

  • @stoly
    link
    511 months ago

    I’m not in the metaverse and wouldn’t be in VR because of cost even if I were. So, question: what exactly is supposed to have happened here? Someone’s avatar pushed someone else’s avatar into a virtual corner?

    • Echo Dot
      link
      fedilink
      10
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      In VR you can almost never actually get up in someone’s face if you try either your body clips into there is because neither of you have an effective physical presence in the simulation (virtually no game goes that far with its realism) or you actually fade out because there is a comfort zone in the game.

      Either way you cannot directly interact with someone. Most games will have hitboxes on the hands, but nowhere else on the body so the best that you can do would be to touch someone else’s hands and it’s not like they can feel it.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      6
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Not even that, I can almost guarantee they don’t have movable hit boxes. It was probably the classic COD thing of teabagging or simulated thrusting by moving back and forth while talking dirty over voice comms.

      • @stoly
        link
        111 months ago

        So edgy teens and pedos, gotcha.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          111 months ago

          Basically yea. I’m not condoning it and the company who owns the vr should do something about it but there’s something sus about them doing a whole investigation about this. I literally get the same thing done to my every time I play league by people spamming animations and I don’t have cops investigating. Sounds like this person has powerful parents or connections.

          • @stoly
            link
            211 months ago

            Or possibly just the right Karen getting attention?

          • Echo Dot
            link
            fedilink
            211 months ago

            Given that the primary, and indeed apparently the only, source for this appears to be a red top that is a highly likely scenario.

        • @feedum_sneedson
          link
          111 months ago

          Paedophiles tend to do worse things than this, if they offend.

          • @stoly
            link
            111 months ago

            Well there was that scandal on YouTube some years ago where it turned out that they would make comments with secret codes on videos of children so that others could search for the comments and watch the content they wanted. Things like children swimming, I guess.

    • Alien Nathan Edward
      link
      fedilink
      English
      411 months ago

      a bunch of people sexually harassed a child, calling it “virtual sexual assault” is the clickbait headline that quotes one anonymous person’s opinion

    • @feedum_sneedson
      link
      111 months ago

      I wonder if it’s a paid news item. They tried this story before didn’t they, with the “free show” thing which seemed totally comical to me.