FACEBOOK has released a “personal boundary” system inside its metaverse to stop people being attacked online.
It comes just days after a mum claimed she was “verbally and sexually harassed” in Facebook’s VR apps.
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The metaverse is like a collection of virtual worlds that users can live, work and play inside.
Right now, you can access Facebook’s social apps like Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues through an Oculus virtual reality headset.
Players create avatars that look like themselves, and can interact with other players – including with physical movements and voice.
But this fairly unrestricted access means harassment can be an issue.
So Facebook’s new Personal Boundary system prevents avatars from coming within a set distance of each other.
Facebook says this creates “more personal space for people” and makes it “easier to avoid unwanted interactions”.
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If someone tries to enter your Personal Boundary, they’ll be automatically stopped.
There’s no “haptic feedback” for it, so you won’t feel anything.
Avatar hands also disappear if they enter your personal space.
The Personal Boundary will be always on by default, although you can toggle it off.
This means you’ll now need to extend your arms to high-five or fist-bump another avatar.
Facebook says that eventually you’ll be able to customise the size of your Personal Boundary.
“Virtual reality can and should be for everyone,” said Horizon VP Vivek Sharma.
“And we’re constantly working to improve people’s experience in VR, gather feedback from the community to inform our work as we continue to iterate and make improvements.
“We believe Personal Boundary is a powerful example of how VR has the potential to help people interact comfortably.
“It’s an important step, and there’s still much more work to be done.
“We’ll continue to test and explore new ways to help people feel comfortable in VR.”
Critics of the metaverse have warned that it could become a dangerous place where predators can roam free.
In a Medium blog post this week, Nina Patel, 43, described being “verbally and sexually harassed” inside Facebook’s metaverse.
Patel claimed that she was attacked in less than a minute.
Several male avatars surrounded her
Her avatar —which was made to mirror her real life appearance — was quickly surrounded by three to four male avatars, with male voices.
“I was verbally and sexually harassed,” she recalls, adding that their inappropriate behaviour took a dark turn.
“[They] virtually gang raped my avatar and took photos — as I tried to get away they yelled — ‘don’t pretend you didn’t love it’ and ‘go rub yourself off to the photo’.”
She described the ordeal as “surreal” and a “nightmare”.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Oculus, says it is working on more systems to keep users feeling safe.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
