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Metaverse: a danger to children and probably you too

By Mal Fletcher - posted Thursday, 28 April 2022


Sometimes we fall in love with cool new techs, without thinking about who controls the data they accrue and what they stand to gain from it. BigTech companies talk a lot about their altruistic - even utopian - motives. They tout their plans to provide cheap global broadband, via low-orbit satellites or high-altitude balloons, for example.

Some boast that by launching privately owned cyber-currencies they might free the world of poverty. Yet often their greatest motivation is still the acquisition of data, the currency of the surveillance economy.

For all that, perhaps our most pressing concern with the metaverse ought to be the impact it will have on the young. If recent revelations about sexual assault are anything to go by, the metaverse will see today's "dark web" seeping into our more mainstream internet experience.

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Almost anything can be purchased in this hidden layer of the internet -from counterfeit passports and illicit weapons to drugs and human slaves. Terrorists regularly use it to share instructions on bomb-making and people traffickers use it to ply their hellish trade.

If you know how to access the dark web you'll also find hardcore and violent porn, including so-called snuff movies - video recordings of real murders. If the metaverse is as poorly regulated as parts of the present internet, these activities may soon seep into the mainstream.

Given the profits such things generate for crime syndicates, the metaverse may provide children with access to virtual sexual activity which, for them, will quickly become all too real.

If that is the case, the metaverse might also turn some children into abusers of others. Online bullying and trolling provide examples of how rapidly negative behaviours can go viral among the young. And abusive behaviours all-too-quickly become addictive habits.

We find documented evidence of this among heavy gamblers and consumers of pornography. In the world of gambling, people whose behaviour is labelled "compulsive" gamble beyond their limit, because the excitement of gambling releases endorphins and enkephalins in the brain. These chemicals produce euphoric feelings.

Repetitive use of pornography can create similar sensations. Heavy users can become physiologically dependent on a chemical reaction. They want the sexual fantasy because they desire the high that comes with it. The more they indulge their habit, though, the higher the dose they need to achieve the same rush.

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Knowing the destructive impact this kind of habit-formation has on adults, why would we remain silent when children are presented with something similar in terms of abusive behaviours online? Why should we sit back and watch our young ones dragged into a murky, dark-web-style pit of abuse, addiction and victimisation?

The metaverse - either as it is presented by Meta, or some other version thereof - may prove, in some ways, a boon to life on earth. However, we should learn lessons from our experience of the current internet.

It has increased global awareness of challenges to be overcome, such as global warming. It has boosted our capacity to stay in touch with those we care most about. It has given us the means to encourage dialogue among factions in society that might not have engaged otherwise. It has also, in some cases, made it easier to hold public figures, especially politicians, to account.

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This article was first published by 2030Plus.



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About the Author

Mal Fletcher is a media social futurist and commentator, keynote speaker, author, business leadership consultant and broadcaster currently based in London. He holds joint Australian and British citizenship.

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