Meta has added a 'personal limit' system to the Horizon Worlds virtual reality experience. This new feature is enabled by default on the Horizon Worlds creation platform and the Horizon Venue live service, following a scene after a user admitted to being raped in the Metaverse world.
The woman named Nina Jane Patel wrote about her experience in a blog on Medium. He admits the abuse happened instantly within seconds of entering the Horizon Venues metaverse world
"Within 60 seconds of joining -- I was verbally and sexually harassed -- 3-4 male avatars, with male voices, basically, but they virtually raped me and took photos," Patel said.
Related to this incident, Meta adds an invisible virtual barrier around the avatar where this is intended to prevent other people from getting close.
This restriction system builds on an existing feature that claims to make users disappear when they get too close to another avatar.
Reporting us from The Verge, Meta explained that this feature already gives everyone two feet of distance and with the personal limitations that Meta gives, the total personal space distance between one avatar and another is the equivalent of four feet.
Meta spokeswoman Kristina Milian confirmed users cannot choose to disable their personal restrictions feature, as the system is meant to set the standard for how people interact with each other in VR.
However, future changes may make people adjust the radius size. "If any other avatar tries or moves in someone's private space, their movement will stop," Milian said.