Dark world of the metaverse - virtual rape and grooming in paedophile playground
Every day thousands of young children pop on a virtual reality headset and immerse themselves in online gaming like Grand Theft Auto and Horizon Worlds.
It’s a place where they can create their avatars, animated image of themselves that they design and control, and escape into a virtual space. Children will spend up to a staggering ten years of their lifespan inside the metaverse, according to Britain's Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), as they play games, communicate and work alongside people across the world.
But alongside the popular video games and popular online spaces, there's also a dark side to the metaverse where virtual rape, assault and grooming are all too common.
An NSPCC investigation last year found that West Midlands police had recorded five instances of metaverse abuse and Warwickshire one, while Surrey police recorded two crimes.
The virtual world can seem terribly realistic (stock image) (Getty Images)In the first investigation of its kind, British police are looking into the case of a young girl whose digital persona was sexually attacked by a gang of adult men in a virtual chatroom, according to the Daily Mail. The case has sparked debate as to whether police have the time to tackle online crime when they don’t always have the resources to solve crimes in real life. It's also posed the question: are victims as badly affected when nothing ‘physical’ has actually happened?
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Alyssa Roberts, psychologist at Practical Psychology has helped victims who have been left deeply shaken by online assaults and says these incidents can be extremely frightening and violating especially for children and teenagers. "When you're in these virtual spaces, everything feels so lifelike, so when something terrible like a virtual assault happens, it doesn't just feel like a game – it feels genuinely frightening and violating,” she explains.
Alyssa Roberts, psychologist at Practical Psychology (Provided)"People come away from these experiences carrying heavy emotions like anxiety, fear, and a deep sense of having been wronged. It's a lot like the trauma people experience from real-life sexual assaults. They talk about feeling powerless, scared, and deeply violated. These aren't just fleeting feelings – they can burrow deep, leading to serious, long-lasting mental health issues like PTSD, depression and anxiety.”
The psychologist explains that because the brain gets tricked in these ultra-realistic virtual worlds, it can respond as though these experiences happened to them in real life. She says this is why it’s important to take these incidents seriously and give people affected the help they need.
"Therapy can be a lifeline, helping them work through what happened and finding ways to cope,” Alyssa adds. "But there's more to do, especially as the virtual world keeps growing. We need solid rules and protections in the metaverse to stop these kinds of things from happening and keep everyone safe.”
Virtual grooming can cause serious consequences
The NSPCC estimates around 15 per cent of children aged between five and ten have used a VR headset and 6pc use them daily. That’s thousands of children in the UK alone who are also at risk of being groomed by adults pretending to be younger and taking advantage of the anonymity that online affords them.
In September last year, the NSPCC conducted research into grooming in the VR world and spoke to one victim who wished to remain anonymous, who revealed they had been diagnosed with Stockholm Syndrome - a psychological condition where the victim identifies with and empathises with their abuser.
The victim told the charity: "The mental scars that this whole experience has put on my mind are so extreme that I was recently diagnosed with Stockholm Syndrome… it was so normal for [the offender] to have relationships with minors, in the bubble that we lived in… I came out of that situation with severe trust issues, and I am not sure when things will go back to normal”.
You can travel the world virtually (stock image) (AFP via Getty Images)Lawyer Patrick Roberts previously told The Sun that there is "very real fears" metaverse will become a playground for sex offenders to share child abuse images and force kids into sex acts and prostitution.
"The metaverse's one-to-one, immersive conditions make it easier for bad actors to persuade, mislead and manipulate," warned a March 2022 Common Sense Media report.
"The deceptive possibilities of bots, 'deep-fakes,' AR-altered realities are daunting, especially for tweens, who will have trouble discerning what or who is real."
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Mr Roberts said: "Predators can meet kids through child-friendly avatars, gain their trust in the metaverse and then take their interactions offline.
"That can mean meeting up in real life or chatroom conversations and video chats where a child can be talked into disrobing."
Back in February 2022, the Mirror conducted an investigation into virtual chat rooms and within minutes of going online witnessed avatars under 16 being exposed to sexually explicit content as well as older characters asking them to join them in private chat rooms. He describes how in one room, a robot avatar with a deep voice is putting his hands on a little fairy, who also has a child’s voice. She tries to move away from them, asking: "Who is this paedophile?”
"Me,” the robot replies. “I just want to put you in my pocket and bring you home, little fairy girl. I’d put you in my sink and give you a bubble bath”. Bayu Prihandito, certified psychology consultant and life coach and founder of Life Architekture, says more needs to be done to police the virtual gaming world to prevent virtual rapes and grooming.
Metaverse - An Avatar Immersed in a Virtual World (Getty Images)"Because the metaverse can feel so real and immersive, almost like an extension of reality for many, victims may experience shock, confusion, and a sense of violation,” he explains. "Even if there is no physical harm, these incidents can trigger past traumas or create new psychological disturbances such as increased anxiety, depression, and a deep fear of online spaces.”
Tech companies need to prioritise user safety, especially for minors. This could be done through implementing strict privacy controls, creating safer virtual spaces and continuously updating safety features in response to new cases or threats. "As with anything found online, the metaverse can be misused by predators,” he explains.
Reports of virtual rapes first surfaced on Grand Theft Auto in 2014 (Rockstar Games/AFP via Getty Ima)"The anonymity and immersive nature of these new worlds can indeed increase these risks, fostering a feeling of impunity and a lack of serious consideration for their victims' experiences”. Although this is thought to be the first case being investigated by police, virtual rape is nothing new according to gamers.
Back in 2014, players complained to the press about being virtually raped in Grand Theft Auto and a headteacher told the media how children as young as six had been acting out sexually explicit scenes from Grand Theft Auto in the playground. Morian Morgan, the headteacher at Coed-y-Brain Primary School in Caerphilly, Wales told the South Wales Argus that he had sent a letter to parents to raise concerns about the issue.
"Until I went online and checked the content of this game, I thought it was just a bit of swearing and some shooting and I think some of the parents will tell you that they have been equally naive,” he said.
However, the problem only seems to be getting worse.
Technical advances have done little to keep young gamers safe and now police leaders are calling for legislation to help them tackle a wave of sexual offending online and protect children - before it spirals out of control.
Meanwhile, Meta says it has protections in place to keep people safe online. A spokesman for the company told the Daily Mail: 'The kind of behaviour described has no place on our platform, which is why for all users we have an automatic protection called personal boundary, which keeps people you don't know a few feet away from you."
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