Police are investigating a virtual sexual assault of a girl’s avatar, the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has said.
Donna Jones said she had learned that a complaint was made in 2023, triggering a police inquiry.
The virtual incident did not result in physical harm but caused “psychological trauma”, the Daily Mail has reported a source as saying. Police chiefs have called on platforms to do more to protect their users.
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The impact of the attack on the girl’s avatar was said to be heightened because of the immersive nature of the VR experience.
I think that’s fair, but I also think there’s something clinically wrong with people who’s reaction is anything but ripping off the headset when they feel violated
And I mean that in the context that these people should be given therapy for free. That level of attachment to an avatar is not a trait of a healthy person
To illustrate my point, there’s people who described their gta5 characters being violated was like being raped… If you’re being raped, and you could shut your eyes to make it stop, and you don’t…
That’s fine. We don’t use opinions or outliers to determine what is/isn’t clinically wrong though, it all varies too much. Humans are very unpredictable, we’re a good bit more complicated than most other animals. Medicine is not supposed to be a tool for conformity, but health. So, it has to acknowledge that people just aren’t logical. We’re wet, sloppy, buggy computers.