The metaverse is something we’ve all been hearing about for a long time now. However, Meta’s virtual metaverse has become the subject of harassment issues. Back in January, a 43-year-old British woman claimed that she was virtually groped by a group of male avatars. Then, in December, another woman claimed she was virtually groped in Horizon Worlds.
Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues are both virtual hangouts that involve virtual avatars that can interact with each other. In essence, if you’ve ever owned a VR headset, you probably already know VRChat that’s on Steam. Horizon Worlds is just Meta’s version of the concept.
Meta is now combatting these issues by giving a default setting called Personal Boundary, which will prevent avatars from getting within four feet of each other.
Vice President of Horizon, Vivek Sharma, stated in a blog post that Personal Boundary would create “more personal space for people and making it easier to avoid unwanted interactions. If someone tries to enter your Personal Boundary, the system will halt their forward movement as they reach the boundary. You won’t feel it–there is no haptic feedback.”
Users cannot choose to disable Personal Boundary, as a Meta spokesperson stated, because it’s intention is to establish rules and norms for the metaverse.
Zainah Yousef is a writer for The DZSH Group. She is also the author of “The Fallen Age Saga.” Her areas of focus are on psychology, politics, public security, and war. She is also a frequent contributor in articles on video games and entertainment news.
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
