Police fear sexual offences are ‘rife’ online (Picture: Getty/iStockphoto)

Police have opened an investigation into an alleged rape in the metaverse after a 16-year-old girl was ‘attacked’ by a group of men online.

The victim was not injured physically, but is said to have suffered the same psychological and emotional trauma as someone who was assaulted in real life. She was wearing an immersive virtual reality (VR) headset and in a virtual room when the men assaulted her, according to Mail Online.

The case is thought to be the first virtual sexual offence investigated by the police, but they are concerned the crime is ‘rife’ online.

Ian Critchley, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for child protection and abuse investigation, said: ‘The metaverse creates a gateway for predators to commit horrific crimes against children.’

Children’s charity the NSPCC estimates that 15% of children aged between five and ten have used a VR headset, and 6% use one daily.

But in this landmark case there are fears that, for a number of reasons, a prosecution will not be possible.

Virtual reality gaming is popular among children (Picture: Getty)

A senior officer with knowledge of the case told the Mail Online said: ‘This child experienced psychological trauma similar to that of someone who has been physically raped. There is an emotional and psychological impact on the victim that is longer term than any physical injuries.

‘It poses a number of challenges for law enforcement given current legislation is not set up for this.’

The case has also raised the question of whether virtual cases should be investigated given the current backlog of physical rape cases the police are already struggling to prosecute.

On Horizon Worlds, a free virtual reality game created by Facebook owner Meta, there have already been a number of alleged sex attacks, while in May last year psychotherapist Nina Jane Patel said she was on Horizon Venues, a subsidiary game, for less than a minute before being ‘virtually gang-raped’.

There are calls to make gaming online safer for women and girls (Picture: Getty/Westend61)

‘We need to update our laws because they have not kept pace with the risks of harm that are developing from artificial intelligence and offending on platforms like the metaverse,’ said Donna Jones, chairman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.

Speaking to Mail Online, she added: ‘The government needs to look at changing the law to protect women and children from harm in these virtual environments.’

A spokesperson for Meta said: ‘The kind of behaviour described has no place on our platform, which is why for all users we have an automatic protection called personal boundary, which keeps people you don’t know a few feet away from you.’

However, Mr Critchley warned that policing needed to react as criminal behaviour changed.

‘We know offenders’ tactics to groom and commit offences are constantly evolving,’ he said. ‘This is why our collective fight against predators like in this case, is essential to ensuring young people are protected online and can use technology safely without threat or fear.

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‘The metaverse creates a gateway for predators to commit horrific crimes against children, crimes we know have lifelong impacts both emotionally and mentally.

‘As such, our policing approach must continually evolve to enable us to relentlessly pursue predators and safeguard victims across all online spaces.

‘The passing of the Online Safety Act is instrumental to this, and we must see much more action from tech companies to do more to make their platforms safe places.’

The threat to children in virtual worlds comes as artificial intelligence is also being increasingly used to generate and manipulate child abuse images online.

Launching a report into AI online harms last year, Internet Watch Foundation CEO Susie Hargreaves said: ‘Earlier this year, we warned AI imagery could soon become indistinguishable from real pictures of children suffering sexual abuse, and that we could start to see this imagery proliferating in much greater numbers.

‘Our worst nightmares have come true.’

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The victim was allegedly attacked by a group of men.