The Dating Metaverse: Why We Need to Design for Consent in Social VR

This paper presents a participatory design study about how consent to interaction and observation of other users can be supported in social VR. We use emerging VR dating applications, colloquially called the dating metaverse, as context for study of harm-mitigative design structures in social VR given the evidence of harms that occur through dating apps and general social VR applications individually, and the harms that may occur through their convergence. Through design workshops with potential dating metaverse users in the Midwest United States (n=18) we elucidate nonconsensual experiences that should be prevented and participant-created designs for informing and exchanging consent in VR. We position consent as a valuable lens for which to design preventative solutions to harm in social VR by reframing harm as unwanted experiences that happen because of the absence of mechanics to support users in giving and denying agreement to a virtual experience before it occurs.