Meta Adds ‘Personal Boundary’ Tool After Virtual Sexual Assault Allegation

The function prevents digital avatars from coming within a 4-foot distance from one another to “avoid unwanted interaction,” according to a company exec

article-image

Source: MetaQuest

share

key takeaways

  • One woman said that “within 60 seconds of joining” Meta’s Horizon Worlds, she was “verbally and sexually harassed”
  • Meta stock is up 0.65% to $239.31 per share

Following reports of sexual assaults in Meta’s metaverse, the company Friday rolled out what it is calling a “personal boundary” tool.

The function prevents avatars from coming within a 4-foot distance from one another in the company’s Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venues to “create more personal space” for users and to “make it easier to avoid unwanted interaction,” Horizon Worlds Vice President Vivek Sharma said.

“We are intentionally rolling out Personal Boundary as always on, by default, because we think this will help to set behavioral norms—and that’s important for a relatively new medium like VR,” Sharma said.

The rollout comes following reports of misconduct in the social media giant’s metaverse from a beta tester of Horizon Worlds last year.

Nina Jane Patel, vice president of Metaverse Research at Kabuni Ventures, said that as she tested the game, she was sexually abused by four male avatars, according to a December Medium post.

“Within 60 seconds of joining” Horizon Worlds, Patel said she was “verbally and sexually harassed” by avatars “with male voices [that], essentially, but virtually gang raped” her avatar.

“[It was] a horrible experience that happened so fast and before I could even think about putting the safety barrier in place,” she wrote, referring to the company’s “Safe Zone” feature, which allows users to block other users.

“Virtual reality has essentially been designed so the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual/digital experiences from real [ones],” Patel said. “In some capacity, my physiological and psychological response was as though it happened in reality.”

[stock_market_widget type=”inline” template=”generic” assets=”META” markup=”{name} ({symbol}) is trading at {price} ({change_pct}).” display_currency_symbol=”true” api=”yf”]

The company’s stock plunged more than 20% after hours following its fourth quarter earnings report Wednesday.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).jpg

Research

With $13B in tokenized assets, strong institutional partnerships, and a clear first-mover advantage in the RWA space. The platform's methodical approach to regulatory compliance, coupled with its hybrid public-private architecture, positions it uniquely to capture significant market share in the emerging tokenization landscape. While current fee generation primarily stems from metadata transactions, the planned launch of Figure Markets, major exchange listings, and comprehensive market-making initiatives in 2025 could serve as powerful catalysts for growth.

article-image

Perena is built on the premise that as stablecoins proliferate, liquidity could fragment, and stablecoins aren’t useful if they aren’t liquid

article-image

From hackathons to trading tools and DAO governance, AI agents are redefining how we build and innovate

article-image

CME’s large bitcoin contracts are so big that investors are turning to micro bitcoin contracts

article-image

The third-largest stablecoin is going multichain for the first time in its seven-year history

article-image

Nano Labs’ news release notes confidence in bitcoin being “a reliable store of value amidst its rising global adoption”

article-image

Several big companies report third quarter earnings this week, likely moving markets