Verity McIntosh & Catherine Allen | We’re All in This Together: Safety, Policy and the Translation of Human Rights into Multi-Person Virtual Environments

As immersive technologies and spatial computing paradigms move into the mainstream, public and political interest in the ‘metaverse’ is growing.

For many, virtual spaces offer an exciting view of the future, one in which we, as a global community, can come together, embodied as avatars in navigable 3D environments to share ideas and opportunities with one another. To collaborate and create together. Building kinship regardless of where we are in the physical world. And all without burning a milligram of jet fuel.

By contrast, early instances of “proto-metaverse” spaces have been plagued by reports of harassment and abuse. Concerns about data, privacy and surveillance remain largely unaddressed by policymakers as tech companies compete to find a ‘viable’ business model. For policymakers and regulators tentatively approach this domain, it can be extremely tricky to establish the extent to which existing laws, freedoms, rights and protections that have been configured for physical or online encounters, can now be translated into unfamiliar virtual environments.

Verity McIntosh, Associate Professor at University of the West of England and Catherine Allen CEO of Limina Immersive will share some of the work they have been doing with companies, charities and governments around the world to consider what is needed now if we are going to live well together as empowered citizens in both physical and digital immersive spaces.