Minors can access pornographic materials on the Metaverse

According to a BBC News investigation, children can access sexual material in virtual universes and experience online grooming.

Using the metaverse app VRChat, the researcher was able to visit a virtual strip club where her avatar simulated sexual acts. She was also shown sex toys and condoms and approached by numerous adult men.

The app has a minimum age rating of 13 and features a number of innocent virtual environments for users to meet, such as a McDonald's restaurant. However, there are also a number of adult stages available to users of any age, including pole dancing and strip clubs. The researcher created a fake profile to set up her account and did not check her real identity. The only requirement is that the user have a Facebook account.

In addition to accessing sexual content and attempts at grooming, the researchers said they also witnessed racist insults and rape threats on the virtual platform, which users can explore using 3D avatars.

She also cited comments from other users about sexual content on the app, with one telling her that avatars "can be naked and do unspeakable things."

The findings add to growing concerns about privacy and security issues in virtual reality, an open collection of digital experiences, environments and assets that use virtual reality headsets. This virtual world is expected to grow significantly in the coming months and years and become increasingly integrated into daily life, such as work and movie trips. The technology will be led by large technology companies such as Facebook owner Meta, Microsoft and Google.

However, security experts have expressed concerns about Metaverse’s security practices, including verifying users’ real identities.

Commenting on the story, Alexey Khitrov, CEO of ID R&D, said: “Fake news, malicious actors, adult content. Virtual worlds, or any environment where people hide behind avatars, present many risks to children. The key to preventing children from accessing content that could be harmful to them is to have an effective age verification process.

“In order to weed out fake identities from real ones, Metaverse providers will need to perform strong identity verification during the sign-up process and continuously during platform use to avoid situations where children could access adult accounts. This could be achieved by deploying facial recognition technology.”

Source: Info Security