Meta has added a 'personal limit' system to the Horizon Worlds virtual reality experience. This new feature is enabled by default on the Horizon Worlds creation platform and the Horizon Venue live service, following a scene after a user admitted to being raped in the Metaverse world. The woman named Nina Jane Patel wrote about her experience in a blog on Medium. He admitted the abuse occurred immediately within seconds of entering the metaverse world of Horizon Venus.
"Within 60 seconds of joining -- I was verbally and s3xually harassed -- 3-4 male avatars, with male voices, basically, but they virtually raped me and took photos," Patel said.
Related to this incident, Meta adds an invisible virtual barrier around the avatar where this is intended to prevent other people from getting close. This restriction system builds on an existing feature that claims to make users disappear when they get too close to another avatar. Meta explains that this feature already gives everyone two feet of distance and with the personal limitations that Meta gives, the total personal space between one avatar and another is the equivalent of four feet. Meta spokeswoman Kristina Milian confirmed users cannot choose to disable their personal restrictions feature, as the system is meant to set the standard for how people interact with each other in VR. However, future changes may make people adjust the radius size.
"If any other avatar tries or moves in someone's private space, their movement will stop," Milian said.
Milian also said users can still bypass other avatars, so users can't do things like use their bubbles to block entrances or trap people in virtual spaces. These changes roll out two months after the Horizon Worlds virtual space opened to the public following a lengthy beta testing period. During that period, there was at least one beta user displaying his avatar complaining that his avatar had been groped by a stranger. Meanwhile, users who experience events in the metaverse use the block feature to stop the harasser. Meta also said that the victim had not fully utilized the available options. Personal space bubbles are a standard option in VR social spaces, such as in VRChat and Rec Room. Users of previous VR service services have the ability to resize or disable these personal space bubbles. Some VR games like QuiVR, which is home to one of the places where s3xual acts take place, are now also implementing specials that support users pushing other avatars away from their own.
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