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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Virtual Real.
Sec. Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2025.1401073
This article is part of the Research Topic Ethics in the Metaverse View all 4 articles

The Challenges of Consent in a Decentralised Metaverse: Exploring Ethically Informed Protections and Standards to Safeguard Humans

Provisionally accepted
Carl Hayden Smith Carl Hayden Smith 1*Judith Molka-Danielsen Judith Molka-Danielsen 2*Jean-Brunel Webb-Benjamin Jean-Brunel Webb-Benjamin 3Jazz Rasool Jazz Rasool 4
  • 1 University of East London, London, United Kingdom
  • 2 Molde University College, Molde, Norway
  • 3 Djinn Technologies Ltd UK, London, United Kingdom
  • 4 Energy Diamond Consultancy Ltd UK, London, United Kingdom

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

    Throughout the history of Web2.0 there is a large body of evidence of data being used for something other than what it was consented to be used for. What were 2D webpages are becoming 3D worlds, collectively forming a Metaverse of virtual and mixed reality domains which should help to create new interactive learning, social and economic opportunities. In this paper we reflect on how the physical world will itself become a networked interface, making reality even more machine-readable, click-able, and searchable. We begin with a review of the Metaverse and some of the consent challenges that arise and urgently need to be addressed whilst exploring its potential. There is a core need for creators of Metaverse environments to make them safe spaces for everyone to use. We explore and review the knowledge gap of consent needed to ensure a fair and just use of data within the Metaverse. We explore the challenges of consent including examples such as unauthorised surveillance and the need for ethical and moral standards in large platforms such as VRChat. This need is then further elaborated using experiences gathered during the XPRIZE Rapid Re-skilling Competition. The main contributions of this paper are the five stage Shared Consent Framework (SCF) which was developed in response to understanding the limitations of existing consent frameworks and the extended definition of the Metaverse.

    Keywords: Metaverse1, ethics2, decentrialised3, consent4, virtual reality5, Artificial Intelligence6

    Received: 14 Mar 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Smith, Molka-Danielsen, Webb-Benjamin and Rasool. 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:
    Carl Hayden Smith, University of East London, London, E15 4LZ, United Kingdom
    Judith Molka-Danielsen, Molde University College, Molde, Norway

    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.