Police are investigating a virtual sexual assault of a girl's avatar, the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has said.

Donna Jones said she had learned that a complaint was made in 2023, triggering a police inquiry.

The virtual incident did not result in physical harm but caused "psychological trauma", the Daily Mail has reported a source as saying. Police chiefs have called on platforms to do more to protect their users.

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The impact of the attack on the girl's avatar was said to be heightened because of the immersive nature of the VR experience.

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[–] 0 points 2 years ago (9 children)

The reporting/blocking features are done at the OS level, not in game.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (7 children)

    It's right there in the quick access menu, a single button press away at any time.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (6 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (5 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (4 children)

    Okay, great. Now what about all other games on all other systems where women get constantly sexually harassed? Any solutions there?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    Thread is about VR, which is specifically what I am talking about.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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