Human activity is no longer required to occur in the physical world.

All of the actions we

perform in the actual world can now be performed in a brand-new, non-spatial place. The
existence of this novel conceptual vector for human behavior affects the criminal justice
system in a number of ways. Criminal action can be financially lucrative in the virtual world,
just like it can in the real one. Real crime is defined as criminal activity that only takes place
in the real world. When a crime is actually committed, the actions taken to perpetrate it and
the damage they produce take place in actual, physical locations.  But even the crimes which
are committed in virtual reality continue having psychological repercussions in one’s
personal lives. The news of sexual assault in the metaverse has thrown the limelight on the
concept of a metaverse in 2021. When Nina Patel, VP and Co-Founder of Metaverse
Research herself reported an experience of sexual harassment in metaverse has questioned the
capacity and vulnerability of such offences in virtual reality. Facebook's successor, Meta,
declared that it would transition to the metaverse by the end of 2021. Through virtual reality
devices like VR headsets, one can view the metaverse, an entirely digital universe. Though
the concept of metaverse fascinated huge attraction and investments, due to a lack of
anticipating such unprecedented experiences, there was a significant dip in the growing crisis.
The users couldn’t anticipate the impact of facing sexual assault in their real life. The
increasing number of reported experiences of facing sexual harassment in metaverse/virtual
reality is alarming. The fortune companies eyeing expanding their business operations to
virtual reality now question the scope of the safety valve to its users.

The reporting of actions such as virtual groping, sexual, racist comments, gang rapes,
inadequate reporting mechanisms, and unsafe platform for children to use are a few of the
frequently reported incidents. Considering the failure of the organisation to create a safe
space and punish the guilty, it is unsurprisingly falling behind with the expectations of virtual
reality technology.
Recommendations and Conclusion:

Facebook with its experimental revolutionary technology, Metaverse has set back the
expectations and outreach of the program. The failure of taking appropriate actions and
establishing decent monitoring facilities has hit on the growth of metaverse abyss. The
metaverse officials could step in the field and consider the line of events leading to
harassment and establish a check key measure in spiralling the loopholes further. The
regulators need to take action in barring the exploitative behaviours of the Avtars and place
regulatory mechanisms in monitoring the virtual reality gears like headgears, software and
streaming platforms.

Secondly, the government has to adapt with the emerging technology by introducing adept
data protection laws and regulations for preventing abusive harvesting situations. Due to the
appealing nature of VR technology, it incites people to experience the thrill but such reports
could result in exploitation affecting their notions psychologically. Similarly, the laws
prevalent for sexual offences in real life for crimes like rape, assault sexual harassment,
groping etc., should be made applicable to offences committed in metaverse. But the main
obstacle of identifying legal punishments is the lack of ability in spotting the identity of the
offenders due to its privacy feature. Erstwhile, the inability to identify the jurisdiction of the
offender also adds in the convolutions of identifying the scope of legal applicability.

We are effectively back in the real-world predicament, where hordes are determined to shift
the burden of proof and the responsibility for one's own protection from the offenders of
sexual assault to the victims while the metaverse steadily progresses from the realm of
simulation to simulacrum. Although these debates have made a tough transition into the
mainstream in the physical world, the metaverse is still very much in the early stages of
development. When it comes to the metaverse, there is a lot that is new to be experienced,
intrigued by, process, fight with, and govern. The brave new virtual world, designed to be a
supplement to the physical world, is just as prone to wrongdoing as the world in which we
currently reside.
Issues:

1. The development of metaverse is still at its nascent stage. The legal practitioners are
pondering on considering the legal personality of metaverse Avatars to attract legal
convolutions for offences committed. Since Avatars function and operate
independently, then they should be considered as a separate legal entity attracting
legal issues of various subject matters like Intellectual Property, Criminal Redressal
etc. However, in cases where the Avatars need to be operated on with human
intervention, they should be treated as a human entity and attract the same legal
provisions. Essentially, another instance where the Avatars are controlled by another
machine bot instead of a human becomes complicated.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1365/s43439-022-00056-9.pdf

https://rmlnlulawreview.com/2022/05/24/metaverse-2/

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c9b7d95a-e4ad-4133-8c91-c0b4497dbae5