Virtual Gang Rape Case | Girls are being gang raped not only on the streets of Delhi-Mumbai but also online, investigation continues.

British police are currently investigating a case where a girl’s virtual reality (VR) avatar in the Metaverse game was allegedly gang raped, according to a report. The 16-year-old girl was using a virtual reality (VR) headset in an immersive game when her avatar was allegedly attacked by avatars representing multiple men, the Daily Mail reports. British officials said that although the victim was not physically harmed, the emotional and psychological impact is being taken seriously by law enforcement.

UK Home Secretary James Cleverley has expressed support for the investigation, emphasizing the importance of the psychological trauma inflicted on the girl and warning against underestimating the seriousness of such virtual acts.

“I know it’s easy to dismiss it as not being real, but the whole point of these virtual environments is that they’re incredibly immersive,” he told LBC’s “Nick Ferrari at Breakfast” programme. They said And we’re talking about a child here, and a child who has gone through sexual trauma. It had a very significant psychological impact, and we should be very careful about dismissing it.

Policies to deal with online crimes

Ian Critchley of the National Police Chiefs’ Council highlighted the metaverse as a potential opportunity for predators and stressed the importance of developing policing strategies to tackle online crimes. He also urged tech companies to increase user security measures. The game in question, Horizon Worlds, is a product of Meta, formerly known as Facebook. Reports indicate that the platform has seen various instances of virtual sexual abuse, yet no legal action has been taken in the UK to date.

In a similar case, in 2022, a 43-year-old British woman alleged that she was verbally and sexually assaulted on Meta’s Metaverse, Horizon Venues. She said that within 60 seconds of joining the virtual world, three or four male avatars “virtually gang-raped” her avatar and also took photographs of her.

British police are investigating the sexual assault of the girl, who has only been identified as being under 16, in what is said to be the first investigation of its kind in Britain. The girl was reportedly wearing a virtual reality headset and playing an immersive game in the metaverse when her avatar was attacked by several other people.