Meta Introduces Personal Boundary Space in Virtual Reality

Meta has announced it is introducing Personal Boundary for virtual reality, in an effort to prevent harassment in the metaverse.

The tech industry has been working to be more inclusive and protect individuals from harassment in the real world. As the metaverse — the intersection of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and in-person — continues to grow and gain support, companies are looking at how to protect users there too.

Meta’s solution is Personal Boundary, a feature that will allow users to set a minimum perimeter distance, to keep other avatars from getting too close.

A Personal Boundary prevents anyone from invading your avatar’s personal space. If someone tries to enter your Personal Boundary, the system will halt their forward movement as they reach the boundary. You won’t feel it—there is no haptic feedback. This builds upon our existing hand harassment measures that were already in place, where an avatar’s hands would disappear if they encroached upon someone’s personal space.

Meta may be one of the first companies to come up with such a solution, buy they certainly won’t be the last.