The Metaverse - A Dangerous Place for Kids? : Tom McDermott

The warning signs have been flashing for months now. A new and largely unregulated electronic world of virtual reality is nearly upon us, even while we have barely begun to manage abuses of 'reality' as presented by the internet of today. 'VR goggles' began to appear a few years ago as a novel way of viewing short film clips giving viewers the thrill of a roller coaster ride or a 3-D visit under the sea. Soon games emerged allowing the viewer to feel totally immersed in an artificial world. The next logical step was to allow gamers to link up and play with hundreds / even thousands of users elsewhere.

These developments took place alongside other developments in the electronic worlds of finance, business, and entertainment built around the concept of the blockchain and the use of crypto-currencies - supposedly secure means of buying and selling and registering transactions outside of the control of banks and governments.

Attach the blockchain to virtual reality websites and you have (drum roll please) 'the metaverse', also often called Web3. Proponents argue that this new generation of the internet will provide better security and privacy for its users and open new high-quality services in areas like education, medicine, business and finance.

Maybe so, but so far what we have so far is a gold rush by companies hoping to cash in on the metaverse. Fortune Magazine estimates that in 2021 some $10 billion in investments went into 'metaverse concepts' with much of the funding coming from Apple, Microsoft, and Meta (a.k.a. Facebook). Facebook's decision to rebrand itself as 'Meta' at the end of October was seen widely as both an attempt to outrun negative publicity over the negative roles it has played in recent years, and an indication of the future in which it hopes to capture even more profits.

Crypto-currency transactions to 'illicit addresses' increased in 2021 from $7.8 billion in 2020 to $14 billion in 2021. This is in addition to losses which cost investors of some $7.7 billion in scams and $3.2 billion in thefts. Money laundering is also rife.  Some $8.6 billion in dirty money was cleansed through the crypto laundry in 2021, much of it from sales of drugs and ransomware attacks. Keep in mind that these abuses, while huge, represent quite small portions of the some $15.8 trillion in crypto-currency transactions last year - small proportions but still clear warning signs that the playgrounds are open for criminals.

So what does all this portend for children?

In February 2019 the BBC reported that images of child sexual abuse were being hidden on crypto-currency blockchains.

The Washington Post reported recently on the dangers posed to children by Meta's (a.k.a. Facebook's) new virtual reality system, Horizon Worlds. The article notes that in theory kids are not allowed into the game.

"In practice, however, very young kids appear to be among its earliest adopters." The journalist goes on to relate how the first person he met while using the game was a 9 year old using his parents' VR headset. The article notes the concern of many experts that the company is creating a "hunting ground for sexual predators" a world like other online forums that attract kids and sexual predators.  So far Meta seems to have done little to protect children from such abuses.  

Fortune Magazine points out that "the metaverse could be ripe for crime, child abuse and misinformation without regulation. It quotes a major investor in the metaverse as urging legislators and regulators to look ahead at the abuses coming down the line,

“If you just do one thing first—even before consumer protection or setting up the rights for speech, or gambling regulation, or whatever else, you have to assume that this is going to be a dangerous place for kids, and you've got to proactively think through that and set out rules,”.The first order of business must be to do no harm to children. We have allowed the digital world to evolve in ways that are uniquely harmful to young minds. We must avoid perpetuating this grave error....There should be especially strong considerations for how children will participate in the Metaverse. We are learning more every day about the deleterious effects social media platforms have on the well-being of young people, particularly teenage girls. Cyberbullying, sex trafficking, stalking and other corrosive activity could find a very comfortable home in the Metaverse. Conversations need to start now between companies, experts and regulators about guardrails built specifically for the benefit of children....Somebody’s got to start asking these questions."

So - is UNICEF asking these questions? Yes, but so far with a very mild and quite hesitant voice. In its report on 'Prospects for Children in 2022' UNICEF says meekly,

"As we wait to see what direction these trends take us in, the implications for children hang in the balance. The promise of greater financial inclusion offers significant benefits to the livelihoods of families around the world, including through more frictionless remittances and more instant, transparent and efficient social assistance programmes. On the other hand, unregulated cryptocurrencies pose a threat to the stability of financial systems, government revenues on which many child services depend, and children directly when they facilitate unregulated transactions that underpin child trafficking, sexual exploitation, the sale and purchase of content depicting child abuse, and the defrauding and extortion of children. Now is the time to begin incorporating cryptocurrency and digital currency child safeguards into online child protection initiatives.