Welp, it looks like the Metaverse already has a groping problem after opening access to its virtual-reality social media platform, Horizon Worlds, at the end of last year. In Horizon Worlds, up to 20 avatars can get together at a time to explore, hang out, and build within the virtual space. I guess the idea is that eventually we’ll all be hanging out inside the Metaverse instead of in real life, because maybe it will be too dangerous to even step outside in 20 years?

Anyway, I digress. The point is that the beta tester in this video was virtually sexually harassed in the Metaverse, which is not cool. When a white knight turned up to protect her honour, the sexual harasser literally burst out laughing in his face! Which was admittedly kind of amusing, but obviously not something you want to be dealing with in the real world or in the Metaverse or anywhere for that matter.

Vivek Sharma, the vice president of Horizon, called the groping incident “absolutely unfortunate,” telling The Verge:

That’s good feedback still for us because I want to make [the blocking feature] trivially easy and findable.

Indeed. Should be fairly simple to just block anyone you’d rather not interact with on the Metaverse. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a whole load more of these incidents before the geeks at Meta come up with an optimal solution though.