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It's a little silly at this stage, but I think there needs to be a legal framework around this thing now because eventually, our games will be realistic enough and immersive enough that this could become a serious issue.
Absolutely not! That’s absurd. You can’t virtually rape someone or virtually assault someone. You can always just look away, remove the headset, or turn off the pc. You can always instantly remove yourself from the situation. You are never in a position of danger. You are never in any way being harmed. The police should arrest the person that called them for wasting their time.
You can always hang up the phone if you're getting repeatedly harassed on the phone too. That doesn't make it any less harassment. Of course it doesn't rise to the level of physical rape. That doesn't mean it isn't (intentionally) psychologically damaging. And, as I said, it needs to be done before it gets a lot more immersive, not because of the way things are right now. It could very well not be so easy to instantly remove yourself in the future.
I have a feeling that this isint the case of people repeatedly targeting an individual every time they are online. Seems like it was something that happened once, and that’s not harassment. That’s joking around.
I'm not talking about this case in particular. I'm talking about the need to establish a legal framework before it becomes such a problem that everyone wonders why there isn't a law against it.
We have managed fine this far. Nothing new. Police can stay out of video games.
Yes, we managed this far at he immersiveness and realism level of games so far. Eventually, and this is really the goal for a lot of people, games will be so realistic and immersive that you'll feel like you're actually there. And that is a big problem when it comes to sexual harassment. So maybe we should make sure that we're prepared.
Doubt. It’s always gonna be a game.
I'm not sure why that means you can't use it to effectively sexually harass someone. Women get sexually harassed on games now.
Not trying to be a smart ass but what do you consider sexual harassment in a game?
Repeatedly sending unsolicited rude sexual messages would be one possibility. Which is something female gamers constantly have to deal with right now and sometimes the harassers suffer no consequences and keep doing it, possibly to many women. That sort of thing can have a major psychological effect on someone. But even if it doesn't, women should not have to and not be expected to put up with that shit when they're trying to have the same kind of fun men have.
Can’t that be solved by just blocking annoying people? I do that all the time and it works perfect.
If the game allows for it. It's under no legal obligation to do so.
Nah man. Rape is no joke. Especially not to a LOT of women.
You can’t be raped through a screen though
No. But a simulation of a rape can leave you feeling the same psychological trauma. Or at the very least feel completely disgusted with yourself and can lead to serious depression and maybe worse.
Why is it so hard for you guys to understand that people have the right to feel safe, even online, and not feel like there are people out there with a rapist mentality?
That’s absolutely ridiculous and honestly offensive to compare an actual rape and someone’s game avitar getting too close to your game avitar. What a joke. You’re never in danger in front of a screen. They can’t reach through the screen and touch you. What a fucking weird take on reality you have. You do have a right to “feel safe” it’s called turn the game off if it bothers you that much. Pathetic.
What's pathetic is to not even condone the men who harassed her and blame the girl for not leaving a game she was enjoying harmlessly.
Not saying any of that is right. But it’s not rape. It’s an annoyance. Block and move on.
I'm not saying it's rape either. But it's sexual harassment. And since it's in a virtual reality setting where the user experienced this in first person, I wouldn't be surprised it left the victims with a certain degree of psychological trauma.
I don't know if this is true, but based on what I could find on google, cyber bullying is illegal in some places, including most US states (again, not sure about that, please correct me if I'm wrong). My point is, it's not a new idea to get the law involved in a situation regarding online harassment. A victim could probably avoid it by logging off, but the legal precedent seems to be that they shouldn't be expected to. That seems reasonable to me, just considering I wouldn't tell someone to 'just leave' an irl space because someone was harassing them.
I agree in that I wouldn't call what happened here 'rape' in a legal sense, but if you're saying that something is inherently harmless because it's done online, I strongly disagree. Otherwise, sorry if I misunderstood.
I think they need to go outside.
"I think they shouldn't have worn such a short skirt."
How about we don't blame people for others sexually harassing or assaulting them?
Especially when they're trying to have some harmless fun.
Just block and report, it’s that easy, if you want to continue being in the situation.
And if the game doesn't have that option? There's no legal requirement to have that option. Maybe there should be?
The reporting/blocking features are done at the OS level, not in game.
I have never seen a 'block and report' feature on any OS. And there is certainly no requirement for games to use it if there were.
It's right there in the quick access menu, a single button press away at any time.
Right where in what quick access menu? I don't even know what you're talking about, but I have no idea why you think some 'report' button on, for example, Windows, would send a report to the game company who would then act on the sexual harassment. It's also certainly not universal to all OSes and consoles.
I'm talking about VR devices, which don't run Windows, for example using any Meta headset, App developers are required to make in-app reporting accessible when you press menu and select Report abuse from the universal menu. The report abuse button is one button click away at all times.
Okay, great. Now what about all other games on all other systems where women get constantly sexually harassed? Any solutions there?
Thread is about VR, which is specifically what I am talking about.
Ah, ok, so you're just saying that every VR device ever made in the future for perpetuity will have a block and report button despite no legal requirement to have one.
No, as stated I'm talking specifically about the most popular headsets made by Meta. I believe Pico and WMR headsets have the same system in place but I haven't used either in a while, WMR is being canned so not really relevant.
Okay, but this is about establishing a legal framework. If there was a legal framework requiring a block and report button on every VR gaming system, perfect.
You mean the harassers, right? They were the ones ruining the fun.