Nov 12, 2016 07:00 AM EST By yasi bilangel, UniversityHerald Reporter

Virtual Reality (VR) content in gaming is exploding because it offers users access to realistic rendering of any kind of environments. Study says that the brain does not even make a distinction between real and simulated, which explains why virtual assault and cyber-groping can be offensive if not traumatic.

A recent case of virtual assault complaints came from writer Jordan Belamire, who participated in a VR archery game in QuiVr. While donning her VR headset, she was groped by disembodied hands particularly in her abdomen and then in her crotch.

Belamire immediately wrote about it and became the subject of online bullying and harassment. Many reacted saying she should just have logged off while others were sympathetic, adding that signing up in a game does not constitute consent.

The Belarmire case is riddled with contention as to its authenticity. Nonetheless, it provided a venue for VR developers to discuss and assess the VR gaming industry.

The primary purpose of VR is to simulate real situations and allow users to feel that they are actually in a real world. From this premise, the developers are faced with a difficult question. Is virtual assault real when the whole point of VR is to make the experience real in the first place?

Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab says that "parts of the brain that light up" in real-life experience, he adds, "also light up when one has the same experience in virtual reality" based on a report in Washington Post.

It should be noted that Bailenson was speaking more of the potential use of VR content for educational purposes. However, it is clear from the brain's activity that users will find it hard to make a distinction between simulated and not. Hence, cyber groping becomes real even if the offending hands are not physically there.

Justine Colla, a VR developer and cofounder of the Alta VR studio also affirms this by saying that VR users "retain memories" in a similar way as they do in real-life experiences according to a report in Salon. Hence, Colla admits that developers need to design safer VR games to avoid virtual assault.

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