Member

I return to the harms and the scale of emerging threats that these regulatory gaps leave unaddressed. The Child Online Harms Policy Think Tank has highlighted emerging threats that the codes do not adequately address. These are not hypothetical harms—they are happening now. In virtual reality environments, children as young as nine are entering 18-plus virtual rooms. Instances of virtual groping and sexual assault have been documented. The VIRAC project found that grooming is a top risk, with half of young participants reporting strangers asking for personal images or details. Anonymity features in these immersive platforms encourage offenders and complicate identification, policing and moderation, and the high level of immersion makes harassment, hate speech and exposure to harmful adult content far more impactful than in traditional online spaces. Yet it remains unclear how the Online Safety Act will adequately address these challenges, particularly given its focus on content rather than the contact and conduct risks that dominate in virtual reality platforms.