On December 2021, Nina Jane Patel reported to have been sexually assaulted [1]. Three or four men surrounded her, started touching and groping her even after she repeatedly asked them to stop. When she tried to escape, they followed her, and continued to verbally and sexually harass her. She recalls that “They were laughing, they were aggressive, they were relentless”, they “touched and groped [her] while they took selfie-photos”, as they were saying “don’t pretend you didn’t love it, this is why you came here”. Even though a crime had been committed, it was impossible to report it to the police and the incident could not be investigated. Why? The crime did not happen in the real world, but in the virtual world. So, Patel’s attackers were not in the same physical space as her, but somewhere else in the real world. However, to Patel, the physical distance did not matter, she described the experience as “shocking” and astonishingly real.
Virtual harm as a real problem
Virtual sexual assault is defined as engaging with someone in a sexual act – involving touch, exposure, or manipulation of their avatar representation – in a virtual environment without their consent [2]. Virtual Reality has taken harm to a – quite literally – new dimension. Because of the immersion in Virtual Reality, the unwanted sexual behavior can be experienced as significantly more powerful and more traumatic than other forms of online sexual assault such as sexually laden chat messages [3]. The Virtual Reality experience is successful because users identify themselves with the virtual body[4] and this -amongst others- explains why sexual harassment on the user’s avatar carries harmful effects on the actual person[5].
Sexual harassment can lead to significant psychological trauma [6] such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Because of its immersive nature, the Metaverse can blur the lines between reality and virtual reality, however, virtual harm is not yet widely considered as harmful as physical harm. The virtual sexual assault of Nina Patel is just one of the many reported sexual harassment incidents that has occurred in the Virtual Reality environment. A recent survey [7] of over 600 users of Virtual Reality platforms found that 49% of the women (N=80) and 36% of the men (N=152) had experienced at least one incident of virtual sexual harassment. With the increasing use of the Metaverse, it is essential to understand how sexual harassment in this virtual environment can affect individuals' psychological well-being, and whether it causes the same harmful effects as offline sexual harassment.
Virtual assault beyond the game
The experience of sexual assault in the virtual reality doesn't end when you take off the headset. The incident can? become a traumatic memory and may affect victims as much as physical-world sexual assault experiences do, possibly causing symptoms of trauma- and stress-related disorders. With research increasingly supporting the “realness” of VR experiences [8,9], we are brought to think: If VR can make users feel as if they are “really” present and involved in a specific act, how real will the impact of sexual violence be for victims? However, to date, we have no answer to this question. Research into the psychological harm of Virtual Reality sexual assault experiences is lacking. What is needed is more research into the phenomenon so to provide real help for victims of such Virtual Reality incidents; something that is currently virtually absent.
This blog post is written by Micol Iannuzzi. Micol works as a research assistant at the clinical psychological science research unit at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience of Maastricht University. In 2022, she obtained her Forensic Psychology Master’s degree from Maastricht University. Micol is currently in the process of designing her own research to pursue a PhD exploring the manifestations of sexual offending behavior in the virtual world.
References
[1] Patel, N. J. (2021, December 21). Reality or fiction? Sexual harassment in VR, the proteus effect and the phenomenology of Darth Vader — and other stories…. Medium. https://medium.com/kabuni/fiction-vs-non-fiction-98aa0098f3b0
[2] Saluja, R. (2021, July 2). Concept of virtual rape. iPleaders. https://blog.ipleaders.in/concept-virtual-rape/
[3] Franks, M. A. (2017). The desert of the unreal: Inequality in virtual and augmented reality. UC Davis Law Review, 51(499), 499-538.
[4] Hansen, J. (2019). Virtual indecent assault: Time for the criminal law to enter the realm of virtual reality. Victoria University of Wellington Law Review, 50(1), 57-76. https://doi.org/10.26686/vuwlr.v50i1.5553
[5] Lemley, M. A., & Volokh, E. (2018). Law, virtual reality, and augmented reality. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 166(5), 1051-1138.
[6] Dworkin, E. R., Menon, S. V., Bystrynski, J., & Allen, N. E. (2017). Sexual assault victimization and psychopathology: A review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 56, 65–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.06.002
[7] Outlaw, J. (2018, April 4). Virtual Harassment: The social experience of 600+ regular VR users. Virtual Reality Pop. https://virtualrealitypop.com/virtual-harassment-the-social-experience-of-600-regular-virtual-reality-vr-users-23b1b4ef884e
[8] Madary, M., & Metzinger, T. K. (2016). Recommendations for good scientific practice and the consumers of VR-technology. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2016.00003
[9] Levine, A. (2010). Play Harms: Liability and the play conceit in virtual worlds. McGeorge Law Review, 41(4), 929-965
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