Grace Robertson, New Courtrooms

The metaverse may not exist in its entirety imagined by science fiction, but what is already very real is that, even in its current childish state, concerns have been raised regarding children’s use of and interaction with the metaverse. The concerns can be grouped into three categories that will unfortunately be all too familiar to GPs (1) online grooming (2) exposure to explicit material (3) sexual abuse.

The added risk in the metaverse is that it pretends to look and feel real. With a visual headset and haptic vest technology, online predators are no longer confined to 2D chat rooms or video calls. Instead, it may appear that they are approaching a child user, they really seem to be there with them, talking to them and offering them gifts…