{"id":403685,"date":"2022-02-05T13:20:02","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T10:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/meta-adds-personal-boundary-tool-after-virtual-world-harassment\/"},"modified":"2022-02-05T13:20:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T10:20:02","slug":"meta-adds-personal-boundary-tool-after-virtual-world-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/meta-adds-personal-boundary-tool-after-virtual-world-harassment\/","title":{"rendered":"#Meta adds ‘personal boundary’ tool after virtual world harassment"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Meta adds ‘personal boundary’ tool after virtual world harassment<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n \"Meta
\n Meta stops avatars from getting too close to one another to thwart unwanted touching in its Horizon virtual worlds.
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Facebook<\/a> parent Meta began rolling out Friday a minimum distance between users’ avatars in its virtual reality Horizon network after reports of harassment, one of the thorny issues for its metaverse vision.<\/p>\n

The “personal boundary” function in the immersive platform, where people can socialize virtually, puts a ring of space around users’ digital proxies.<\/p>\n

“A personal boundary prevents anyone from invading your avatar’s personal space,” Horizon vice president Vivek Sharma wrote.<\/p>\n

“If someone tries to enter your personal boundary, the system will halt their forward movement as they reach the boundary,” Sharma added.<\/p>\n

The new function comes after complaints have emerged in press reports and in social media or blog posts of incidents of harassment.<\/p>\n

“Within 60 seconds of joining\u2014I was verbally and sexually harassed,” one user wrote in a blog of her experience.<\/p>\n

“A horrible experience that happ<\/a>ened so fast and before I could even think about putting the safety barrier in place. I froze,” she added.<\/p>\n

The boundary function is turned on by default, said Sharma, who added users will still be able to bump fists or give one another high-fives.<\/p>\n

Horizon already has an anti-harassment feature that makes an avatar’s hands vanish if it tries to inappropriately touch another virtual character, according to its creator.<\/p>\n

Meta opened its Horizon Worlds virtual reality platform to the public in North America in December, in a step toward building its metaverse vision for the future.<\/p>\n

Facebook rebranded itself Meta last year to move past being a scandal-plagued social network and toward its plans to build a virtual universe blurring the lines between the physical world and the digital one. <\/p>\n

But critics of the social networking giant fear that certain mass phenomena observed online, such as harassment or misinformation, will be reproduced in these ultra-immersive worlds. <\/p>\n

Horizon Worlds is far from a fully realized metaverse, which even Meta concedes will require years of work and significant technological advances.<\/p>\n

But headset-wearing users in the United States and Canada can now gather with friends or others, play game<\/a>s and build their own virtual worlds on Horizon as long as they are 18 years old and have the proper equipment.<\/p>\n

“It’s an important step, and there’s still much more work to be done,” Sharma wrote of the new safety feature.<\/p>\n

Options being explored include letting people adjust the distance for their personal boundaries, he added.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Facebook opens virtual world app to public, inching toward metaverse\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2022 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Meta adds ‘personal boundary’ tool after virtual world harassment (2022, February 5)
\n retrieved 5 February 2022
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news<\/a>\/2022-02-meta-personal-boundary-tool-virtual.html<\/p>\n

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\n part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n