Your Avatar Just Harassed Someone -Now What?
Having recently been inspired by the subject of “avatar accountability” in digital workplaces, consider this: two employees logging into a metaverse meeting. One avatar makes an inappropriate joke about their colleague’s virtual appearance. Another avatar walks up and makes a lewd gesture during a presentation. It's all just play-acting, right?
Not if you're in HR.
As more companies experiment with the metaverse as a virtual workspace for onboarding, collaboration, or remote events, a new frontier of employee misconduct is quietly unfolding. And many organisations aren’t remotely prepared for it.
New World, Same (But Weirder) Problems
In the metaverse, users interact through avatars — fully customisable digital personas. They can look human, animal, alien, or entirely surreal. But with that creative freedom comes a legal and ethical minefield.
Misconduct in virtual spaces isn’t theoretical anymore. Just like real-world harassment, a hostile act in the virtual world, whether it’s verbal abuse through a headset or a physically suggestive animation, can have real-world consequences. The difference? In the metaverse, proof is pixelated, and identity can be murky.
The Legal Question: Has Discrimination Been Reimagined?
Here’s where it gets tricky. UK employment law protects individuals from discrimination, harassment, and victimisation based on characteristics like race, gender, and disability. But what happens when these traits are expressed — or erased — through avatars?
- Can an employee be penalised if their avatar mimics a disability they don’t have, possibly to access support?
- Could it be discriminatory if an avatar platform doesn’t allow all users to reflect their cultural identity?
- What if misconduct occurs and the employee says, “That wasn’t me — someone used my login”?
None of this is covered in traditional HR handbooks. But it needs to be.
Accountability in the Age of Avatars
Like it or not, your avatar is you, at least in the eyes of employment law. Claiming “it was just the avatar” won’t shield someone from disciplinary action if they engage in virtual misconduct.
That said, employers do need to tread carefully. Here are the kinds of challenges that should be anticipated:
- Verification: How do you confirm who was behind the avatar at the time?
- Security: What if an account was hacked or shared?
- Process: Can you discipline someone fairly without concrete evidence of their login activity?
- Liability: Could wrongful discipline lead to claims of breach of trust or constructive dismissal?
What Employers Should Do Now
The best way to handle misconduct in the metaverse is to get ahead of it. Here’s how:
- Review internal policies: Update your disciplinary, anti-harassment, and IT use policies to reflect virtual environments.
- Define avatar norms: Set expectations for how avatars may appear and behave in professional contexts.
- Improve access controls: Use multi-factor authentication to secure login credentials.
- Educate staff: Help employees understand that virtual conduct has real-world implications, and the same rules apply.
Final Thoughts
The metaverse isn’t a legal black hole - but it is a place where old assumptions no longer hold. If your company is stepping into virtual space, don’t leave your ethics, culture, or policies stuck in the real world.
If you’re looking to future-proof your workplace policies, the team at Neathouse Partners would be delighted to help.
