Crimefighting in the metaverse

Crime might seem like a fake issue to the promoters of the metaverse — the kind of thing waved around by skeptics who “don’t get it.” But consumers are already thinking about it, and so is the industry. In a recent Morning Consult poll 70 percent of respondents said virtual abuse was either a “major” or “minor” problem. Reports of sexual harassment have dogged Facebook’s Horizon Worlds platform since its inception. The XR Association, the industry’s leading trade group, raised the question more gingerly in a new report published April 13, suggesting that “existing laws and policies need to be reviewed to see whether they should be modernized and if any policy gaps exist.” The report, written by the Bipartisan Policy Center, also flagged the possible implications for tort law, labor discrimination, worker safety and civil rights as people migrate more of their lives to virtual spaces. Right now, the responsibility of playing cop mostly falls on companies. Meta has already put guardrails in place to prevent harassment incidents in Horizon Worlds, including a virtual bubble that prevents users from coming too near to each other. Roblox, by far the biggest currently-operating virtual space, has been combating inappropriate content on its platform (which is largely populated by children) for years. As for the role of “real” courts and law enforcement in a virtual space? That’s still an open question within our current, two-dimensional internet infrastructure.