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POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article

Front. Virtual Real.
Sec. Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2024.1443384
This article is part of the Research Topic A Metaverse for the Good: Design, Application and Understanding View all 7 articles

What do policymakers need to know about harassment in the metaverse?

Provisionally accepted
Verity McIntosh Verity McIntosh 1*Catherine Allen Catherine Allen 2
  • 1 University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom
  • 2 Limina Immersive, Bristol, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    As immersive technologies and spatial computing paradigms move into the mainstream, public and political interest in the metaverse is growing. In some respects, the metaverse offers an exciting view of the future, one in which a global community can meaningfully connect regardless of where they are in the world. In contrast, however, early instances of 'proto-metaverse' spaces have been plagued by reports of harassment and abuse.Policymakers around the world are now considering the role that governments might play in the regulation and governance of metaverse spaces, seeking to secure protections for citizens, and criminal accountability for offenders in this fast-evolving space. This paper introduces some of the key issues for governments engaging with this topic, including the suitability of existing legislative frameworks, and consideration of a new category of harm that seeks to recognise the distinctive impact of 'conduct' abuses in metaverse environments.

    Keywords: Metaverse, governance, abuse, harassment, Immersive, policy

    Received: 03 Jun 2024; Accepted: 20 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 McIntosh and Allen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Verity McIntosh, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.