Making a Metaverse That Matters

CHAPTER 9Sex, Abuse, and the Eternal Content Moderation Challenge

“The Metaverse is wide open and undefended, like airports in the days before bombs and metal detectors, like elementary schools in the days before maniacs with assault rifles. Anyone can go in and do anything that they want to. There are no cops. You can't defend yourself, you can't chase the bad people. It's going to take a lot of work to change that—a fundamental rebuilding of the whole Metaverse, carried out on a planetwide, corporate level.”—Snow Crash, 1992

In the context of the novel, the hero muses these thoughts after a deadly computer virus begins spreading through the Metaverse. But so far the most virulent infection in the Metaverse is basically human nature.

And in a virtual world, human nature at its worst can burst out in unexpected ways.

Philip Rosedale often tells the story of how, in Second Life's early days, he and his development team gave the beta users creation tools that were powerful enough to remake the virtual world however they chose. They expected to see it become a strange alien reality—especially since all avatars can fly at will.

They were surprised to discover how it actually evolved. As Hunter Walk told me for The Making of Second Life:

• “They immediately started building—homes!” And not even fantastic otherworldly homes, but realistic houses, for the most part, fully appointed McMansions with utilities of no conceivable necessity. (“Why would you build bathrooms and dining rooms ...