Last month, Jordan Belamire (alias) discovered that he may be the first victim of sexual harassment in the VR world. Last month at her brother-in-law's home, she experienced a game named QuiVr in the HTC Vive. At the time, Belamire waited near a player named "BigBro442". However, the player suddenly faced Belamire and raised a floating salty pig hand to her chest.

Female player

This incident was published on a blog by Belamire and caused widespread concern. There is no lack of controversy in the development of science and technology, but sexual harassment that occurs in the virtual world does not seem to have a proper name to define its nature. After all, anonymity of harassment can leave users in a position of nowhere to complain:

"(Although it did not bring substantial harm,) But I feel that the current feeling is so true. Although there is no God's perspective to supervise similar incidents, if you have witnessed such a thing, you may understand me. The idea has been going on for a week, but it still gives me a lot of thought."

Advocates of VR and AR often promote the excellent efficacy of immersion in the therapeutic field, but the occurrence of sexual harassment inevitably alarms the industry: If VR is traumatized by unfair treatment, who will be blamed?

In simple terms, it should not be those hardware or software companies.

Michael Risch, a professor of law at Villanova University, said that “VR vendors are likely to never take responsibility for this.”

He believes that VR providers are protected to a large extent by the Communications Regulation Act 230, which stipulates that internet computer service providers are not responsible for content from users and other providers. Just as Twitter is not responsible for all kinds of speech and harassment on the platform.

"As long as suppliers don't do relevant content themselves, they don't have to take responsibility."

However, Risch also stated that if suppliers have designed a VR bot that is always harassing users, or worse, such as a VR game involving rape or personal attacks. In this case, Risch believes that the user can file a mental damage lawsuit against the code supplier of the product.

However, in this way, the plaintiff needs to have sufficient evidence to persuade the judge to make a ruling. After all, VR does not protect speech as a novel, movie, or traditional video game.

“In the VR world, suppliers are also subject to relevant legal restrictions and sanctions in the event of a violation,” Risch said. The content presented in the VR monitor is also subject to supervision, guaranteed by a code of conduct and terms of service. Specifications for various types of products.

But there is also a problem here: Many small developers and startups are in the embryonic stage, and it is difficult to unify the standards of conduct. As mentioned above, QuiVR is still in alpha version, developers only have two people.

Miles Perkins, Jaunt's vice president of marketing communications, said, "There is no mechanism to limit these wicked people." His own VR startup has received a $100 million investment from Disney.

For large companies, they are not willing to talk about unfair treatment in the VR world. Oculus, Microsoft, Magic Touch and WeVr, as well as most VR and AR players, declined to comment.

A statement from HTC stated this:

"Unfortunately, this behavior persists in the real world and various social platforms. We support content developers to create suitable tools to circumvent this type of behavior and ensure a safe and reliable VR experience."

In the game industry, Riot Games through the establishment of a large community, access to reporting tools and rapid iterative, and through the ban and cancellation, etc., in the LOL to contain possible injustice. But for VR, it is not known whether developers can create such conditions.

"The purpose of these mechanisms is that if a bad situation occurs, lawbreakers can be immediately blocked and they are responsible for what they say and do."

However, the bad thing happened in VR, but it continued into real life: Belamire has already written off her own Twitter account, probably because the comments are unbearable.

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