Woman reveals ‘nightmare’ of gang rape in virtual reality

A woman has spoken of her “surreal nightmare” of being subjected to a “gang rape” in virtual reality, saying technological advances in simulation made her react to the incident feel as if it had happened in real life.

Nina Jane Patel, a psychotherapist who researches the metaverse, said she was “shocked” after being attacked by three to four avatars in the metaverse.

The metaverse refers to 3D virtual reality that simulates real life – with holographic avatars and videos. The term metaverse, which is now a buzzword, is said to have been first used in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel. Snow crash where he imagined avatars gathered in virtual worlds.

While the metaverse is still in its early stages, Facebook has already created a metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of Facebook’s parent company to “Meta” to focus his energies on creating the metaverse.

“I recently shared my experiences with sexual harassment on Facebook/Meta platforms,” Ms. Jane Patel, who was in Facebook’s Metaverse at the time of the incident, said in a Medium post.

“Within 60 seconds of joining, I was verbally and sexually harassed. Three to four male avatars, basically with male voices, were practically raping my avatar and taking photos. When I tried to get away, they were yelling, ‘Don’t act like you didn’t like it’ and ‘Go rub yourself at the photo.'”

The 43-year-old mother said it was a “terrible experience that happened so quickly” before she even had a chance to think about using “the safety barrier” – adding she was “frozen”.

Ms Jane Patel, who lives in London, noted that both her “physiological and psychological” reaction resembled real life.

“Virtual reality was essentially designed so that the mind and body cannot distinguish virtual/digital experiences from real ones,” said Ms Jane Patel.

However, she explained that she is a “determined woman” surrounded by a community – and also said that she does not plan to be “deterred by three or four avatars” trying to “scare or intimidate” her.

She added: “My experience of sexual harassment was shocking to say the least. Shocking because I am not used to being spoken to in such a derogatory way, maybe in 1996, but certainly not in 2021.

“The comments on my post were a plethora of opinions, from — ‘Don’t choose a female avatar, this is easy to fix’ to ‘Don’t be stupid, this wasn’t real’, ‘A pathetic cry for attention’, ‘Avatars don’t have lower bodies to attack’, ‘You’ve obviously never played Fortnite’, ‘I’m really sorry you had to experience this’ to ‘This has to stop’.”

The Independent has reached out to Facebook’s parent company, now known as Meta, for comment.