Metaverse has become a hot topic for news these days. While major tech companies push towards the adoption of the virtual world, there are a lot of challenges that need to be overcome. Addressing one such issue of harassment, Facebook parent Meta has started rolling out a personal boundary feature, which ensures a minimum distance that will be in place between its users avatars in the virtual reality Horizon network.
The update has been made after a number of harassment reports. This new personal boundary will allow people to socialise virtually, but at the same time also put a ring of space around their digital proxies.
The personal boundary feature according to Horizon Vice President Vivek Sharma will “prevent anyone from invading your avatar’s personal space.” “If someone tries to enter your personal boundary, the system will halt their forward movement as they reach the boundary,” he added.
Multiple reports of harassment in the metaverse have recently emerged. “Within 60 seconds of joining — I was verbally and sexually harassed,” wrote a user in a blog.
The new personal boundary feature is turned on by default. However, users will still be able to give fist humps and high-fives.
“It’s an important step, and there’s still much more work to be done,” Sharma wrote in a blog post.
The new personal boundaries feature is currently being tested, by allowing people to adjust the distance for their personal boundaries.
Apart from this, Horizon already has an anti-harassment feature, which makes the hands of an avatar vanish if they try to touch another virtual character inappropriately.
Horizon Worlds is currently very far from a fully realised metaverse. Meta in a statement has already said that it will require years of work and significant technological advances to get to a complete and fully realised metaverse.