New Delhi: In a shocking incident, a 16-year-old UK girl was virtually gang-raped in the metaverse.
According to a report by The New York Post, the UK police have initiated a proper investigation into the case of the first case of gang rape in a virtual reality game, in which the girl was raped in the ‘online metaverse’.
According to the report, the girl’s digital character was sexually attacked by several men online. The report stated that ‘the alleged victim, identified only as a girl under 16, was wearing a virtual reality headset in an immersive game when her avatar, an animated representation of her, was raped by those of several men’.
The police sources quoted in the report informed that even though the did not suffer any physical injuries, she for sure is going through an emotional trauma, which can be experienced by anyone raped in real life. A police officer was quoted as saying, ‘There is an emotional and psychological impact on the victim that is longer-term than any physical injuries’.
The officer further added, ‘It poses a number of challenges for law enforcement given current legislation is not set up for this’.
Meanwhile, a few details around this case are still unclear, as to which game was the girl playing at the time of the incident.
At the same time, this one-of-a-kind case involving rape in virtual reality has also raised many questions around the investigation by the police. The questions have been raised around whether they would really pursue the case given the department already has a backlog of actual rape cases.