Effects of Virtual Groping

Is sexual assault possible when there is no physical touch? With Virtual-and Augmented Reality, we are able to experience what it is like to be in another body in another reality (or in no body at all!). These experiences are for some people so immersive that they can be hard to distinguish from “real” experiences. In this work, I investigated individual testimonies of sexual assault on virtual bodies (claimed to have “real” character) through phenomenological analysis, and argue for the legitimity of sexual assault on virtual bodies despite no actual touch.

This paper was followed up by a talk with 70+ attendees.