
New Delhi: The Metaverse, a virtual reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and others users, has created a lot of buzz throughout the world especially among tech enthusiasts.
However, 43 year old Nina Jane Patel did not have a pleasant experience with it and instead, had to go through a dreadful experience.
She was a beta tester on the Virtual Reality platform Horizon Worlds, created by Meta, late last year and described that her virtual avatar was gangraped within 30 seconds of joining Metaverse.
She even shared her experience and wrote on the web portal medium. She stated that her virtual avatar was verbally and sexually harassed by three to four male avatars with male voices and added that her virtual avatar was gang-raped and photos were also clicked.
As I tried to get away, they yelled, 'don't pretend you didn't love it and 'go rub yourself off to the photo,' she further added.
Nina has termed the entire incident as "surreal" and said that this horrible experience occurred so swiftly that she froze before even thinking about putting the safety barrier in place.
The safety barrier that Nina was referring to was Meta's Safe Zone feature that enables users to place a curtail interaction with other users.
It is to be noted that the Virtual World is currently in the stage of beta testing. Meta has promised that users would be able to experience live events like sports, concerts, comedy, etc from the comfort of their homes.
Patel made a statement to the New York Post where she emphasized the need for the industry to come together and put security controls and safety measures to tackle harassment of any kind in the Metaverse.
Furthermore, she said that these instances of harassment will not come to an end as the world is moving rapidly from the 2D Internet into the 3D Internet space (metaverse).
A Meta spokesperson reacted to the accusation by saying that the company regretted the incident and also sought to reassure the users that the technology firm wanted everyone in Horizon venues to have a positive experience and be able to quickly get access to the safety tools.
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