SALT LAKE CITY — A new Utah law makes it a felony for adults to engage in sexual acts with minors in virtual reality spaces.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said it started when a prosecutor was trying to file charges for an adult who was engaging in sexual acts with a minor in virtual reality, but did not have the legal basis to do so.
"We know that if we have an adult who is pursuing a 13-year-old on social chat or whatever, and then enticing them and meeting them, we can prosecute that, we made laws consistent with that,” explained Gill. “But if an adult seeks out a minor child in a virtual space and then engages in sexual acts with that child, and the same public policy concerns that we have, we couldn’t do that."
"I’m glad that there’s a loophole that’s been identified to kind of close that gap for any predators,” said Ty Palmer, the founder of Sherpa VR, a company that specializes in virtual reality experiences and works to showcase VR in a safe way.
"Virtual reality I think just has a really big potential to bring to life something you love,” said Palmer.
VR is a growing space in Utah, and as the technology is evolving, so are laws to keep up with it.
"I think it’s a really important thing to safeguard the kids and the parents. We need to make sure that we're creating a safe space for everybody to benefit from this technology,” said Rylan Wheeler, the company's CEO.
With virtual reality headsets becoming more accessible and with how interactive the medium can be, it brings some challenges.
"Playing online and being able to connect with strangers,” said Wheeler. “Where virtual reality is a little bit more real, it’s not like you’re watching the TV, playing on your controller — you’re actually in it, you’re experiencing things.”
The DA’s office was working on a case where a mom found a stranger in her daughter's VR space detailing the sexual acts he was doing to her.
"We take these issues seriously and we're open to coming up with creative solutions,” said Gill.
And as more kids engage in virtual reality, those in the industry remind parents to keep a close eye.
"When you’re setting it up, make sure that the parent is the one setting it up, not the child,” advised Wheeler. “It'll walk you through step-by-step exactly how to get those parental controls on there, and you can manage everything, set up pin codes so they can’t access it without you, make it so it restricts certain games, they can’t get online, they can’t talk with other people.”
There are also ways to mirror the games on phones, so parents can watch what their child is doing in the VR space — and hopefully using VR as it’s intended.
"Virtual reality is just so much more immersive and consuming, and brings a really special element to our lives,” said Palmer.
