Meta is adding a ‘personal boundary’ to VR avatars to stop harassment

Meta is adding a “personal boundary” system to its Horizon virtual reality experiences, aiming to stop harassment in VR. The new feature is being turned on by default in the Horizon Worlds creation platform and the Horizon Venues live event service. It creates an invisible virtual barrier around avatars, preventing other people from getting too close — although you can apparently still stretch your arm out to give someone a fist-bump or high five.

The boundary system builds on an existing feature that could make users’ hands disappear if they got too close to another avatar. As described by Meta, it gives everyone a two-foot radius of virtual personal space, creating the equivalent of four virtual feet between avatars. Meta spokesperson…

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