Meta metauniverse female safety problems occur frequently, how to solve the relevant problems in the metauniverse?

Original by Rhodri Marsden writing , The Chinese content consists of the heart of the meta universe （MetaverseHub） Team compilation .

After the incidents of women being sexually harassed and even attacked were reported one after another , Virtual reality space, which is still in its infancy, has become the focus of attention .

Many women say they are using Meta Flag Horizon Worlds And its sister platforms Horizon Venues Encounter sexual harassment and sexual assault .

Meta, primary Facebook company , Last year, 12 Yuexiang's new virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds Open the door . The platform is part of the so-called meta universe , It is advertised as a place for users and friends to meet in the image of virtual human , Users can wear VR Head show to meet 、 Talk and interact .

But before long , This parallel society began to reflect some problems in the real world . In a few weeks , Many women stand up and speak , Complain Horizon Worlds And its sister platforms Horizon Venues Sexual harassment and assault in .

Meta Community standards do not allow such behavior to occur , But the difficulty in implementing the rules , add VR The anonymity of and the new social structure , It raises an important question ： Is such a space safe for women ？

Whether the sexual harassment in the virtual space really exists ？

When words like attack and harassment begin to be used to describe some behaviors in the virtual environment , The scale of such events is assumed to be lower than that of similar events in the real world . However , Some women's accounts of such incidents are very distressing .

In their description , Some women have suffered from male virtual human “ Salted pig hand ” even to the extent that “ rape ”, While others watched without any intervention . One of the women described the severity of the events she had experienced , She has been feeling anxious since the incident happened .

Meta And others in VR and XR（ Expanding reality ） The alternative reality constructed by companies working in the field , Just as the name suggests, it makes people feel very real . However , The inevitable result is , The substitution of violence and abuse in reality also makes people feel very real .

“XR The neuroscience behind the influence of environment on our cognitive style shows that the feelings it brings us are actually real ,” Human rights advocates and VR Experts Brittan Heller Express .“ We are VR The way we experience an event is interpreted by our brain as being as real as if we were sitting side by side on the sofa . therefore , When companies see abuse as akin to reading annoying content on text-based social media , It's not the same . It's like someone sitting in your living room ready to attack you , And that's how your brain interprets these events .”

Put the blame on women

Meta The initial response to these complaints was met with a lot of criticism . A representative of the company said , The complainant did not properly use the available tools to screen or report the violator , The platform is not muted or used “ Safety zone ” Function to prevent unnecessary attacks .

Heller Express ：“ I think the platform has a tendency to shirk responsibility to the target of abuse . From the early days of social media , We have already seen this phenomenon , Victim target , Especially women , They were only told to turn off their computer screens , Now even VR So it is with .”

Meta A long overdue introduction “ Personal boundaries ” Options , This option is on by default , It will impose a distance of at least one meter around the user's Avatar .Meta Indicates that this will help develop a code of conduct .

Critics are right about Meta It seems perplexed to fail to foresee the inevitable .

More than five years ago , A name Jordan Belamire The woman who wrote that she was HTC Vive Play on the system VR Archery game QuiVr The experience of being attacked .“ I spent less than three minutes in a multiplayer game , There has always been “ Salted pig hand ” Reach out to me ,” She wrote ,“ What's worse is , That feeling is very real 、 It makes me feel violated . With VR Become more and more real , How do we determine the boundaries from simple interruptions to actual attacks ？”

A new space race

Jordan Your words are prophetic , However, the development and launch of the new platform did not give due consideration to the rights of potential abused targets in the platform , Whether it's about sexual abuse or racial discrimination .

In a sense , This can be attributed to the perceived lack of diversity among large technology companies , The users of these emerging technologies are white and male by default . But according to Heller That's what I'm saying , around VR There is another problem with the hype .

“ We are in a new space race ,” She said ,“ Companies are competing for your next personal communications device . If you will VR The challenge is understood as a product of the mobile phone competition , That makes more sense . Through this understanding , You can see why some companies release some products with incomplete security functions or lack of user education without careful consideration .”

In the long run , Whether society will accept VR And the metauniverse we don't know yet . But it is certain that this will be a slow development .

according to Meta Last financial report of , Its Reality Labs（ Reality lab ） The Department lost more than last year 100 Billion dollars . If half the world's population is worried about the consequences of using it , Its expansion will certainly not help .

There are already some challenges in mitigating abuse in a text-based environment ; And in the VR in , It's almost impossible .

Bloomberg columnist Penny Olson In an interview with BBC The interview said ：“ To process visual information about virtual human , Or the distance between virtual people , It will cost a great deal of computing power , I don't know if there is any technology that can do this .”

Heller Consent .“ There is no technical solution to these problems ,” She said .“ This is a social problem .”

Some people who work in the metauniverse say they want to solve this problem , These include 《 Second life 》（ A game that simulates reality ） The founder of Philip Rosedale.Philip Express ：“《 Second life 》 It is possible to build one that will not harm humans , Instead, it is in the version of the metauniverse that can actually help solve the problems we are facing now ,” He told Fast Company,“ The virtual world need not be dystopia .”

Heller Still full of hope . She said ：“ I am very fond of VR and XR, For me, , The potential and prospects of this field are exciting , This is similar to the splitting of atoms . However , In my submission , If we just introduce the harm and structure of existing social media into new forms , That would represent the failure of our imagination .”