Gender Equity for Avatars in Social VR
Virtual Reality has gone through waves of popularity in the past with a variation of a VR headset being first patented in 1939, and the first “true” headset being created in the 1970's. But in the past 4 years, VR has seen yet another spike and its presence has been unavoidable by the general public.
With advancements in technology and computing capabilities, we’ve been able to unlock new possibilities with this technology. One of which is Social VR: the ability to see and talk to another person in VR. Naturally, Facebook has been at the forefront of tackling social VR with their recent announcement of VR Spaces where you can be an avatar and interact with other people in shared virtual spaces.
Avatar Based Social Platforms
While it’s great that VR will fulfill its potential of being an incredible social platform, it faces many road blocks and design considerations. One of which is how to prevent/mitigate harassment in VR. When you’re experiencing VR as an avatar from the first person perspective, everything feels more real which can be good and bad. In the past, sexual harassment in online platforms have taken place via verbal and visual messages but with VR the blur between our virtual bodies and our physical bodies makes harassment a lot more impactful. As stated in an article by QuiVR’s founders:
“If VR has the power to have lasting positive impact because of that realism, the opposite has to be taken seriously as well.”
Multiple cases of sexual harassment have already been reported, involving “groping” and “thrusting” attacks in various social VR games such as QuiVR, VR Time, RecRoom, and more. There have been so many cases despite the user base being so low and the technology being so early that it poses the question:
Is VR always going to be a dangerous space for sexual harassment?
Designing To Address VR Harassment
As the reports of sexual harassment rise, developers have been experimenting with different ways to prevent/stop these cases. QuiVR created a way for players to activate a virtual personal bubble via a “power gesture” where players would fade away from your sight when they entered your personal space.
One company is using VR to handle sexual harassment training by having users go through either Bystander Intervention or Response Training where scenarios unfold from either a bystander’s or victim’s perspective. By running the training in VR, it uses the realism of the technology to make a strong impact on the user vs the detached trainings via PowerPoints and videos.
Virtual Reality is still in it’s infancy and as standards and best practices continue to be explored and developed, it’s crucial to make sure VR is a space that everyone can feel welcomed in.
