Digital Safety in the Metaverse
Say you are in a long-distance relationship, or that you want to explore the dating scene, but you can't go on a physical date because of distance or other life commitments. Therefore, to connect with your loved one or meet someone new, you settle on visiting a virtual art gallery in the metaverse for convenience. In the metaverse, you use your avatar to interact with your date and others while browsing the artists' digital artwork, such as their NFTs - a digital token that represents a non-replicable piece of information built on top of blockchain technology and enables decentralized, fast, secure, and accountable exchange. [23] Your experience feels just as it would be in a physical art gallery, and you end the date with a purchase of digital art using cryptocurrencies.
You are concerned about sexual harassment and assault, inappropriate language use, and avatars contacting each other in the metaverse. You are also concerned about how to report such actions or the jurisdiction of the crime, especially when international characters are involved.
You are concerned about verifying the identity of the individuals you meet and interact with in the metaverse. How do you know the people you meet are exactly who they say they are?
At the gallery, you want to buy a piece of artwork or an NFT image as a gift for your date. You’re then concerned about how to pay and what ownership rights you have if you want to transfer to your loved ones. Do you own this virtual digital asset? Who is responsible for your data? Massive personal data exchange between servers that host the metaverse through AI technology, collection, and storage of data is handled differently by various entities within the metaverse.
Sexual assault and harassment in virtual environments is a real problem and will continue to occur unless regulations are put in place to regulate those behind the keyboard to take full responsibility for actions their avatars partake in virtual interactions.[24] Online harassment is common because anonymous users feel comfortable bullying and committing crimes without being caught.[25] For instance, Meta has had sexual harassment and assault incidence reported on their horizon platform, where a virtual sexual abuse victim, woman, shared her experience that she (her avatar) was verbally and/or sexually abused within 60 seconds of joining the platform. This case was never pursued criminally offline but could’ve lead to mental health issues and/or trauma.[26]
Online dating apps such as Tender, Bumble, and Grinder have many identity issues that haven’t been solved. There are catfishing incidents and other uncomfortable scenarios that can occur when users are able to fake their identities in dating scenes.[30] An example could be individuals seeking to register on a dating site would be required to provide a government-issued identification document, and then the provider must verify the document for authenticity before granting access to the site.
Virtual digital assets such as NFTs are considered a form of licensing or provision services. Ownership rights lie with the owner unless explicitly stated in the contractual arrangements at the time of purchase. The NFTs are therefore considered properties, but their statuses and the asset's safety are held away from blockchain technology. In other words, the purchase of the painting does not entitle the buyer to copyrights in the artwork.[34][56]The AI algorithm system employs digital tools, models, and methods to help users understand how and where avatars move within the virtual art gallery in the metaverse. The data and avatars are located on different servers worldwide, and the metaverse platform uses AI technology to handle and process personal data. Therefore, it is a challenge to determine ownership of personal data collected while visiting the art gallery.[36]
Currently, federal and state legislative laws are being enacted for civil protection, including sexual assault, harassment, stalking, and other domestic-related violence.[27] Congress is enacting a digital safety bill that would require online dating service providers to send safety awareness notifications to its members to increase awareness of safer online practices, fraud ban notifications if a member has sent or received messages from a banned member of the online dating service and to verify the identity provided by the online dating service members. [28] Corporations are putting measures to prevent sexual harassment and assault, such as Microsoft’s Space boundary, where avatars can limit the distance they can come close to each other before their arms can disappear from view or avatar movement can be halted when close to a set distance limit (say 4 feet), also measures such as Facebook’s safe zone can be activated such that no one can touch them until they signal for a safe zone be lifted.[29]
Currently, federal law on Catfishing does not specify impersonation as illegal. However, it becomes illegal when catfishers engage in fraud, Intellectual Property infringement, etc. Densely populated states such as California, Texas, or New York consider Catfishing illegal by impersonation. Only Oklahoma state outlaws impersonation (using another’s picture to become someone new) [31] Dating apps mostly rely on Facebook, Google, etc., for identity and authentication, while other apps have in-app identities not recognized in other apps/sites since there is no standard identity verification mechanism implemented yet. However, other dating sites such as Tinder have rolled out ID verification by uploading a photo of a government-issued license or passport. [32]
Trademark laws and copyrights are applied to the extent of relevant remedies for crimes involving virtual digital assets. NFTs currently are not regulated by state virtual currency, money transmission, or federal Anti-Money Laundering laws. However, the Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) recently considered regulating artwork which may extend to NFTs.[37]
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