Will the Online Safety Act help protect children in the metaverse?

MDX and UEL researchers from the VIRRAC project raise concerns about the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act in protecting children in the virtual world known as the metaverse

The Virtual Reality Risks Against Children (VIRRAC) research project, led by the University of East London (UEL) and Middlesex University (MDX), aims to apply its findings and recommendations to real-world scenarios. The primary goal is to provide further practical guidance on the safety and wellbeing of children in the metaverse through exploring educational and other experts’ opinions, learning from their hands-on experiences, and carrying out targeted dissemination activities.

While the Online Safety Act sets out to cover VR harms and offences, there is debate about its effectiveness in addressing these issues. The legislation should expand its focus beyond content to include contact harms, such as cyberbullying and online harassment, which are prevalent in the metaverse. Participants in the research agreed on the critical need for widespread awareness-raising campaigns about child safety in the metaverse. Besides educational practitioners, these campaigns should target both children and parents, providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge to navigate VR spaces safely.

During this research, policy implications were raised to address how stakeholders could create a safe metaverse for children. For example, the research team found that it would be beneficial to conduct a thorough review of existing safety features implemented by VR platforms which should include identifying best practices, particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. Such insights would inform industry guidance and codes of practice introduced following the Online Safety Act and hopefully enforce existing ones, for example regarding the responsible use of collected data.

Another policy recommendation is the increased investment in research, as it is crucial for informing policy development. Such research should focus on the prevention, detection and mitigation of harms within the metaverse, providing a robust evidence base for future policy decisions, and supporting important cross-sector collaborations across academia, education, health, criminal justice, and industry.

Addressing the educational challenges of Virtual Reality

During a roundtable the team organised, experts underlined the need to effectively teach practitioners about, and integrate emerging technologies into educational practices. They found it challenging to find practical resources, up-to-date policy documents and evidence-informed guidelines, especially for children with diverse needs. Concerns emerged about supporting neurodiverse young people navigating the metaverse, as we currently know very little about how they will learn and process information differently in these environments. This has significant implications for safeguarding them effectively.

For example, an experienced educational professional highlighted a particularly  important challenge: scaling educational interventions that would address potential harms in virtual reality (VR), and securing the consistent implementation across different contexts.

She said: “The biggest challenge is ensuring that what works well in one context can be adapted and implemented effectively across various educational settings.”

At the same time, professionals found it encouraging that many children expressed a high level of safety awareness regarding their use of the metaverse based on the research findings. Furthermore, these children were proactively asking for more support from adults and the tech industry.

Safety in the Metaverse: insights from professionals

Participants of the second exploratory roundtable emphasised the pressing need for proactive moderation by platforms and better cross-platform safety measures to prevent grooming and other harmful activities. Given the increasingly popular modus operandi of offenders using encrypted messaging platforms to move conversations with children from VR spaces, one expert suggested that

“there needs to be ownership taken by the technology platforms to disrupt [harmful behavior] beforehand… and the Online Safety Act is supposed to be the vehicle for tackling this issue”.

The discussion included varying opinions around the current legislative measures, some believing that they do not adequately address the immersive and impactful nature of VR environments, making it difficult to mirror traditional sexual offences laws in these new contexts.

To be continued…

The project, although small in scale, provided deeper insights into the practical and policy implications of the VIRRAC recommendations while giving concrete examples of the possible development of actionable strategies to mitigate risks and enhance child protection online. Participants highlighted how learning more about the project enhanced their awareness and understanding of child safety in the metaverse and provided them with new perspectives.

To learn more about the research findings and recommendations, read the Toolkit Report.

The team is led by Professors Julia Davidson OBE, director of ICC at UEL, and Elena Martellozzo, Associate Director of CATS at MDX, supported by Dr Ruby Farr, Paula Bradbury and Boglarka Meggyesfalvi. During the two roundtables, key findings and recommendations from the VIRRAC research were shared, followed by facilitated discussions to explore their practical applications and implications.

About the authors

Prof Elena Martellozzo

Criminologist Dr Elena Martellozzo is an associate professor in Criminology at Middlesex University and the associate director of CATS, with extensive experience in researching subjects related to online harms and abuse against women and children. Elena has acted as an advisor on child protection to governments and practitioners in Lithuania, Italy and Bahrain to support the development of national child internet safety policy frameworks and led and co-led research project both in the United Kingdom and internationally.

Recognised as one of the world’s leading experts in criminology, she focuses primarily on online harms, online violence against children and women and online safety. She is an active member of the UK Centre for Internet Safety (UKCIS) and an expert advisor for EIGE on Cyber violence against Women and Girls, mapping national policies, research, data, and definitions on cyber violence against women and girls across the EU-27.

Elena delivers regularly expert training on online safety and prevention to professionals working in the online safety and sexual health area. As well as being the author of two books and more than 40 peer-reviewed articles, she regular speaks on national TV and in print media.

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Prof Julia Davidson OBE

Prof Davidson is a professor of criminology and the director of the Institute for Connected Communities at the University of East London. She is one of the UK’s foremost experts on policy and practice in the area of children sexual abuse and exploitation and online harms. Alongside her role as chair of the UK Council for Internet Safety Evidence Group, Prof Davidson provides expert advice to international and national organisations such as the Technology Coalition,  UNICEF, the US Sentencing Commission, the UN ITU, the Home Office and DCMS.

In addition, she is a member of the Europol  EC3 Expert Academic Advisory Group and is the Chair of the Research Ethics Committee to the Independent Inquiry into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse. She has been an academic advisor to the Inquiry since it began in 2017.

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Boglarka Meggyesfalvi

Boglarka Meggyesfalvi is a dedicated child protection professional with a commitment to safeguarding children and advocating for their rights. She holds a Master’s degree in Criminology and has recently embarked on her doctoral research. In her role as a researcher at CATS, Boglarka immerses herself in impactful research to advance knowledge in the field of child protection. Her expertise extends internationally, as she serves as a youth projects’ expert for EU initiatives, where she gains invaluable insights into empowering and supporting young individuals on a strategic level. Her diverse career has included positions in the Integrated Rights Protection Service of the Hungarian Home Office and various child protection NGOs across Europe and Latin America.

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Paula Bradbury

Paula Bradbury is a Criminology Lecturer and Doctoral Researcher at Middlesex University, exploring the appropriateness of current policy and practice relating to adolescent sexual offending and sexual behaviour between peers. She is passionate about researching online sexual offending behaviour and child abuse.

Paula is an active member of the CATS team engaging in multiple research pathways to combat child sexual abuse both online and offline as a mixed methods researcher proficient in both quantitative and qualitative analysis, and project management. She was the National Child Sexual Abuse Lead for Victim Support, serving as a project manager developing online support content for adult survivors or child sexual abuse. 

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