A South Korean man has been sentenced to four years in prison for sexual abuse in the metaverse.

The 30-year-old man, who has not been named, used an avatar to hide his identity and approach minors online.

He exploited the anonymity provided by the metaverse to approach youngsters and offer them gifts in return for getting them to send him images of their bodies.

The perpetrator used a false name and age.

He was found to have committed sexual abuse over a period of four months, from December 2021 to March 2022.

The Uijeongbu District Court said in its ruling: “The quality of the crime is extremely bad by targeting the victims of children and adolescents who do not have an established conception of sexuality and lack the ability to protect themselves, to satisfy their distorted sexual desire.

“It is reasonable to hold them accountable.”

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As well as receiving his four year prison sentence, the man was ordered to 80 hours of treatment for sexual criminals and was banned from working in jobs where he would interact with teenagers.

It is thought to be the first case in the world of someone receiving a prison sentence for a crime committed in the metaverse.

Concern over the risk of sexual assault in the Web3.0 platforms has been growing in recent months.

In May a woman claimed she was virtually “raped” while using Meta’s Horizon’s World platform.

She said she was assaulted while other users “watched and passed around a vodka bottle”.

In June South Korean politician Shin Hyun-young, urged for new legislation to be passed to specifically target sexual offences committed in the metaverse.

The country’s science ministry has separately also put forward proposals for eight ethical principles that users of the metaverse must abide by. They are: including authenticity, autonomy, reciprocity, respect for privacy, fairness, data protection, inclusion and responsibility.

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