British police have started investigating the gang-rape of a girl by online strangers in the metaverse, UK’s Daily Mail has reported.

The girl, identified as being under the age of 16, was sexually assaulted when she was playing a video game. It is said to be the first investigation of its kind in the UK.

The survivor suffered the same psychological and emotional trauma as someone who has been raped in the real world, officers told the British news outlet and added the ‘VR’ experience was designed to be completely immersive.

The survivor was in an online ‘room’ with a large number of fellow users when the virtual assault by several adult men took place.

VR headsets were among the popular Christmas gifts. According to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the UK, 15 per cent of children aged between five and 10 have used VR, with six per cent using it daily.

Experts in the past have criticised Meta, founded by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, for its bad track record while protecting children and teenagers.

Author Nancy Jo Sales, who wrote about the rape in her opinion piece for The Guardian on Friday, said it would be an important test for the UK’s new Online Safety Bill that was made to protect children and adults online.

Police leaders have called for legislation to tackle a wave of sexual offending in such a sphere. They stressed the need for evolving tactics to stop perverts from using new technology to exploit children.

But the question remains how police should pursue the case, amid an enormous backlog of actual rape cases and if such a case should be prosecuted under current laws.

“The metaverse creates a gateway for predators to commit horrific crimes against children,” Ian Critchley, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Child Protection and Abuse investigation lead, was quoted as saying by Mail.

So far, the details of the case have been kept secret to protest the child. But one senior officer familiar with the case said: “This child experienced psychological trauma similar to that of someone who has been physically raped. There is an emotional and psychological impact on the victim that is longer term than any physical injuries.”

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He was of the view that the case poses several challenges for law enforcement as legislation was not set up for such a case.

There have been several reported sex attacks on Horizon Worlds, a free VR online game run by Meta, where users create an animated online representation of themselves.

Psychotherapist Nina Jane Patel, who researches the metaverse, in 2022 wrote about her “surreal nightmare” of being gang-raped in Horizon Venues. “Virtual reality has essentially been designed so the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual/digital experiences from real,” she said.

Police were of the view that developments in gaming have opened up new avenues for cybercrime, including virtual robbery, ransomware, fraud and identity theft.

“The kind of behaviour described has no place on our platform, which is why for all users we have an automatic protection called personal boundary, which keeps people you don’t know a few feet away from you,” a spokesman for Meta said.