BY DAVID KARIUKI · MAY 20, 2016
Online games and social networks are already hotbeds of bad behavior, but virtual reality offers an even higher degree of potential harm — and experts are urging VR innovators to build in more safeguards from the ground up. That includes building in controls to deter bad behavior and giving users more controls over their own environment and interactions with others.
Virtual harassment is no joke
Video game players are used to getting physically attacked by monsters or other players as part of the game. But when those attacks become personal or sexual, or take place outside a gaming environment in a social platform, or follow the victim to multiple channels or offline then the situation can become uncomfortable, scary, or even actually dangerous in real life.
“Virtual reality makes emotional and physical action more intense, things are heightened in virtual reality, ” Pooky Amsterdam, CEO of PookyMedia, told Hypergrid Business.
For example, when the virtual avatar mirrors the user’s own hand motions, facial expressions, or full body movements, the feeling of being immersed in the virtual environment is intensified, she said. And so is the experience of harassment.
