Female avatar sexually assaulted in Meta VR platform: Report

This, however, is not the only incident of its kind in the metaverse. Earlier this year, Nina Jane Patel felt confined and under threat as the male avatars closed in, intimidating her with verbal abuse, touching her avatar against her will and photographing the incident.

The abuse took place in a virtual world but it felt real to her, and this kind of story is causing severe headaches for architects of the metaverse.

"I entered the shared space and almost immediately three or four male avatars came very close to me, so there was a sense of entrapment," Patel told AFP.

"Their voices started verbally and sexually harassing me, with sexual innuendos," said the London-based entrepreneur.

"They touched and they groped my avatar without my consent. And while they were doing that, another avatar was taking selfie photos."

Patel, whose company is developing child-friendly metaverse experiences, says it was "nothing short of sexual assault".

Her story and others like it have prompted soul-searching over the nature of harassment in the virtual world, and a search for an answer to the question: can an avatar suffer sexual assault?

(With inputs from AFP)