There’s no doubt that unrequited love is all kinds of painful, but if it means you’re digitally replicating your ex-partner into a 3D avatar for sex – you might be creating more problems than solutions for yourself.
According to a new report from Vice, there’s a new “community of 3D graphics hobbyists” who are creating and selling avatars resembling real people for the purpose of fulfilling a sexual fantasy.
The avatars, that are sold via forums on Reddit, Patreon and other websites, can be “articulated into any position, animated, modified, interacted with in real time, and manipulated in ways that defy the constraints of physical reality.”
While they’re nowhere near as sophisticated as those scary deepfakes floating around the Internet, these 3D avatars are equally-as-frightening because “many hobbyists seemingly make avatars, of anyone, with or without their consent.”
Vice noted one Reddit user saying they use their 3D avatar to “fulfill my sexual fantasies or replicate sexual encounters with my ex-girlfriends.” Apparently, celebrities are also a common occurrence in the 3D avatar world, and Vice has found dozens of them online, including Emilia Clarke, Natalie Portman, Emma Watson and Nicki Minaj, most under the guise of a nickname.
The obvious problem here is consent. Does the ex-girlfriend, celebrity, or stranger know they’re being made into an avatar for sex purposes?
In 2017, Newcastle University researchers conducted a study on virtual reality porn and how it could cause a dangerous blurred line between real life and fantasy.
Dr. Madelin Balaam, co-author of the research said, “our research highlighted not only a drive for perfection, but also a crossover between reality and fantasy. Some of our findings highlighted the potential for creating 3D models of real life people, raising questions over what consent means in VR experiences.”
“If a user created a virtual reality version on their real life girlfriend, for example, would they do things to her that they know she would refuse in the real world?”
This study was conducted two years ago, and it sounds like the researcher’s concerns were warranted. According to Vice’s report, we’ve already arrived at the point where real life people are being replicated in virtual reality form.
In light of harrowing rape cases like that of Chanel Miller, who was sexually assaulted by fellow student Brock Turner on Stanford University campus in 2015, consent and the rules around consent are more pertinent than ever before.
Will the same attention to real life consent by paid to virtual consent?