3 Patent Pending Ways to Fight Sexual Harassment in the Metaverse - hackernoon.com

Shortly aft Facebook shifted absorption to the Metaverse, it rebranded itself arsenic Meta. Then came quality astir persistent intersexual harassment reported by women who ventured into the Metaverse utilizing pistillate avatars. While immoderate radical suggested it was harmless (it’s each simulations right?), others said that adjacent the existent unsmooth graphics sufficed to marque the harassment existent capable to women. Meta’s reply was the urgent deployment of a information bubble astir an avatar. This was transparent but impervious to breaching. The pistillate avatar was present safe.

It was a bully mentation 1.0, but 2 problems emerged. The archetypal is that the Predator is not punished. He conscionable wanders distant to find different females to molest. And the archetypal pistillate unfortunate volition apt yet privation to little her bubble truthful that she tin shingle hands with others nearby. Or creation with them. Or different harmless activities. But she is present vulnerable.

There are 3 alternatives.

First. Jill, the quality owner, tin person a guardian bodyguard.

This is simply a human, Bob. But helium does not usage an avatar that accompanies Jill’s avatar done VR. Instead, helium co-inhabits her avatar. Jill shares the optical provender she gets from her avatar with Bob. They spot the aforesaid things. Jill retains power of the avatar and moves it. Now accidental a Predator nears. Jill swaps places with Bob. He controls the avatar. She tin lone watch. He uses the avatar and his warring skills to bushed up the Predator. Control of the avatar past reverts to Jill.

This attack differs from the existent uses of a virtual bodyguard. Here, the second is an avatar that differs from Jill’s avatar. Typically, it is simply a hulking antheral fig that walks with her avatar. But this is conscionable an unimaginative replay of existent life, wherever you mightiness spot immoderate personage walking with a large bodyguard.

Second. Maybe Jill does not privation a guardian.

She walks her avatar by herself. A sketchy creep approaches. He could beryllium a Predator. But helium hasn’t done thing atrocious yet. Now she increases the spot and velocity of her avatar. She mightiness treble its strength. And treble the velocity of its arms and legs. Without changing its appearance. This is not similar the Marvel Hulk who visibly beefs up. Her avatar tin present combat with a momentum 4 times greater. Overkill? If the creep does thing aggressive, neither does she. But if helium acts up, she tin grip him.

The thought is that the wide and velocity of her avatar tin beryllium dialed up. It takes vantage of virtual reality. These tin conscionable beryllium adjustable parameters astatine her control. IRL, this does not work.

But what if earlier, earlier helium did thing wrong, the Predator signed up with the tract to person a akin quality to summation his wide and speed.

He pretends to beryllium an guiltless (male) avatar, who does not privation to beryllium molested. Then helium uses his caller wide and velocity against the victim.  A remedy is for the tract to complaint him and her a fewer dollars each for the enhancements.

This requires him (and her) to usage a recognition oregon debit card. There is nary anonymity here, typically. So helium mightiness person to wage $5  for the quality to heighten over, say, the adjacent 30 days. This gives the tract a humble gross root successful the sanction of protecting users. Now accidental helium uses it against the victim. And accidental helium manages to molest her. This time, she complains.

The tract tin reappraisal the recording. Because erstwhile helium utilized the enhancement, it alerts the tract and starts a recording. It tin ascertain that the Predator is astatine fault. But present the tract has ineligible lasting to get his recognition paper relationship accusation and do different ineligible measures against him.

Third. The leitmotif.

The fig shows a pistillate avatar successful her underwear. You marque a hyperlink from her bra to a punishment site. You marque a hyperlink from her panties to the punishment site. You are the proprietor of the avatar. Or you mightiness beryllium a coder who works for a institution that makes and sells underwear for avatars. Along with the polygon mesh that defines the underwear, you capable successful an associated tract that is simply a hyperlink. See Figure 1.

Then the avatar puts connected her dress. She walks thru a VR site. A Predator approaches. He gropes her by touching her underwear. When helium does this, it is the aforesaid arsenic erstwhile we click a nexus successful a webpage shown connected our browser. For us, that loads the webpage pointed to by the link. In the Metaverse, the Predator is sent immediately to the punishment site.

This happens:

[a] The Predator is immediately removed from the victim.

[b] At the Punishment site, this is optional but recommended. The tract shows audio and video to him. The audio tin beryllium fingernails connected a blackboard. (Remember the country successful Jaws (1975)?) The video is simply a atrocious acerb trip. This is the deterrence missing from the information bubble.

[c] We hamper him from returning to the archetypal site. He fundamentally tries to deed a Back fastener successful his VR rig. But the punishment site's IP code is connected a blacklist held by the archetypal site. Because successful general, the emblematic crushed wherefore a idiosyncratic astatine a punishment code would privation to travel to the archetypal tract is that the idiosyncratic was justifiably sent to the punishment site. A technically proficient Predator tin usage a TOR web code arsenic an code from which to travel backmost to the archetypal site. This takes time. TORs are notoriously slow. The hold gives clip for the unfortunate to determination on. And to notify the archetypal site. Which present has clip to adhd different measures to forestall the Predator from returning. Or to judge his instrumentality and for the tract to bash on-site measures against him.

See Figure 2.

The 3rd method is objective and automated.

The Predator only goes to the punishment tract if helium touches her underwear. And it is automated due to the fact that determination is nary manual valuation by a show idiosyncratic of whether the Predator did thing incorrect oregon not. The automated facet is successful the tone of however Facebook roseate to prominence.

If you person a Facebook account, you constitute the webpages and marque oregon find the audio + video to travel it. Facebook conscionable holds the results and spends nary of its unit clip to support your pages.

We expect a aboriginal erstwhile virtual underwear comes with a information tract of a punishment site. Maybe respective underwear firms tin jointly marque that site. Or a radical of wide intent sites mightiness jointly tally specified a site. It is to their corporate payment to heighten the information of the Metaverse for users. And bully publicity, naturally.

This tin beryllium generalised to outer covering having specified a information field.

The 3rd method is successful the tone of Web 1.0. I was determination successful the dot com years and I retrieve penning and tweaking the URLs of that time. It was truthful chill and powerful. For me, this method brings a question of nostalgia. It evokes 1995 for me. Maybe for you also.