https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67865327
Police investigate virtual sex assault on girl's avatar
Police are investigating a virtual sexual assault of a girl's avatar, the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has said.
Donna Jones said she had learned that a complaint was made in 2023, triggering a police inquiry.
The virtual incident did not result in physical harm but caused "psychological trauma", the Daily Mail has reported a source as saying.
Police chiefs have called on platforms to do more to protect their users.
Ian Critchley of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) wrote that the metaverse - a collective name given to a range of virtual 3D spaces and technologies - had created a "gateway for predators to commit horrific crimes against children, crimes we know have lifelong impacts both emotionally and mentally".
I've posted this before but no police investigation had begun until recently.
Background: a woman's online avatar was "raped" by other users while on Facebook's Metaverse, a virtual reality platform. The woman (16 yr old girl at the time) filed a complaint.
If found to be true: should there be any legal consequences? After all, online bullying is legally considered harassment....what about online "rape"?
@vivify saidAnd what about bad actors using AI to make pornographic pictures and video of school-age children?
I've posted this before but no police investigation had begun until recently.
Background: a woman's online avatar was "raped" by other users while on Facebook's Metaverse. The woman (16 yr old girl at the time) filed a complaint.
If found to be true: should there be any legal consequences? After all, online bullying is legally considered harassment....what about online "rape"?
Bad times ahead.
@suzianne saidPornographic depictions of children, real or not, are already illegal, so that probably won't be much of an issue.
And what about bad actors using AI to make pornographic pictures and video of school-age children?
Bad times ahead.
However there are exceptions, like in anime where high-school girls are frequently depicted in sexual ways.
@Suzianne
Isn't the internet WONDERFUL......
One thing I see, using my cell phone to get to the net and these stories pop up like 'she used to be a hot number, but look at her now' and it goes into this long one paragraph at a time BS that you have to scroll down 300 pages to find the punch line meanwhile an ad or two pops up between each POS post.
It seems to be the new way to write stories these days, there must be a college course in writing for cell phones, just how to make a 20,000 word story split up into separate paragraphs and scroll scroll scroll.
Sorry for the distraction.
Interesting.
In my view digital rape isn’t a thing. Rape is a physical matter.
Bullying is a thing, because you can psychologically bully someone.
Yet, I can definitately see how having your avatar raped could be traumarising. Although I’m not quite sure why that option is made bloody available… Jesus… WTF META???
I presume it will fall under bullying, intimidation laws. Or, if the online pests are known to the victim in real life, it could be viewed as direct threatening behaviour.
A lot of these kids spend a lot of time in the virtual world. And put a lot of effort into their avatars and online persona.
Well. As I stated. Interesting to see where this goes.
@sonhouse saidSunstroker, I'd definitely put revenge porn in this category, try this hypothetical;
@Suzianne
Isn't the internet WONDERFUL......
One thing I see, using my cell phone to get to the net and these stories pop up like 'she used to be a hot number, but look at her now' and it goes into this long one paragraph at a time BS that you have to scroll down 300 pages to find the punch line meanwhile an ad or two pops up between each POS post.
It seems to be the new ...[text shortened]... 0 word story split up into separate paragraphs and scroll scroll scroll.
Sorry for the distraction.
A lonely spinster cat lady becomes attracted to a strong, wealthy, powerful man, it's the classic story, someone well known, out of her reach. She diddles the bean to this man. Afterwards there's guilt. Guilt plus the realisation that it can never happen leads to jealousy, mix those three together and you get dangerous and ugly resentment, which manifests itself as unhinged rants online.
But one night this hypothetical spinster slips up, she's having a few wines (with her cat), there's a conversation going on, salacious, gossipy and it's about her favorite topic. Oops, the fingers start running all over the keyboard and some true aspect of herself is accidentally revealed when she types: "teehehehe One of them needs to get pics (you know, of the big bits), *giggle* take his money, then "accidentally" hehehe release the pics anyways." Trying to make a joke of it some might say, well there's one way to test that, tell her you have some of those pics and see what she's prepared to pay, because undoubtedly this is a serious attempt aimed at sourcing these pics even if they're created by ai.