Virtual ‘gang rape’ results in new Meta feature
or
New Meta feature results in virtual ‘gang rape’
Social network rolls out personal force field for VR avatars blocking most touch
Meta, formerly Facebook, has added a “personal boundary” system to its Horizon virtual reality platform in response to concerns over virtual harassment. The feature, which creates an invisible and impenetrable force field with an “almost four-foot” radius around individual avatars, will be turned on by default in both the Horizon Worlds creation platform and the Horizon Venues live event host, Meta revealed in a blog post on Friday.
While users can apparently still stretch their arms past the new no-go zone in order to deliver high-fives, fist bumps, and other less intimate forms of greeting, a Meta spokesperson revealed users would not have the option of disabling their personal boundaries even if they wanted to be “groped” or otherwise touched. Users who try to touch others will find their movement blocked, and the would-be recipient of the touch will feel nothing.
According to the blog post, the Metaverse’s grope-proof pods are meant to establish standards for how people interact across all VR platforms. While Meta left the possibility open of eventually being able to customize the size of the no-go zones’ radius, removing touch from the equation may have unexpected negative results for Meta’s popularity.
Given that much of the internet’s evolution has been driven by the porn industry, eliminating physical intimacy from Meta’s version of virtual reality is likely to limit its appeal to certain demographics – no small concern given the company’s recent stock market tribulations.
Horizon Worlds beta tester Nina Jane Patel claimed she was virtually “groped” – an accusation she later leveled up to “gang raped” – after plugging in to the virtual reality platform in November. Within just a minute of signing in, she wrote on her blog at the time, she was set upon by “3 to 4 male avatars, with male voices” who “essentially, but virtually gang raped my avatar and took photos.” She is the only beta tester to go public with such allegations, and has parlayed her notoriety into what she describes as a child-friendly Metaverse equipped with parental controls, called Kabuni.
As I have claimed many times on this blog, whenever a new social media platform is invented, paedophiles will be the first demographic to master it and will be there waiting for your children to come online. This is proof that my claims are accurate. Within a minute - 3 or 4 rapists assaulted her avatar, producing a new kind of pornography.
Paedos will quickly find a way around an 'impenetrable force field' and introduce our children to another level of evil.
After investigating the incident, Meta determined that Patel hadn’t taken full advantage of existing isolation features, including a block button – which she admits, arguing it happened too fast for her to even think of “putting the safety barrier in place.” While the company suggested it would make the block button and other options “trivially easy and findable,” this was apparently not sufficient for harassment-proofing the Metaverse. Previous iterations of VR social media platforms have included personal space bubbles as an option that can be turned on and off, but Meta opted not to go that route.
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South Dakota bans transgender women from competing
on female sports teams
By MATT MCNULTY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:40 EST, 4 February 2022 |
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed a bill on Thursday that will ban transgender girls and college-age women from playing in women's school sports leagues, making South Dakota the tenth state to enact such a law.
Noem is the first governor to sign such a ban this year. The bill is set to take effect July 1, but still faces potential legal challenges along the way.
Lawmakers used the Pennsylvania case of a 22-year-old transgender woman, Lia Thomas, who has had a dominant year swimming for the women's University of Pennsylvania team, as proof that trans athletes possess an unfair advantage over their competition.
Thomas blew away the competition and shattered two national women's records at the Zippy International in Akron, Ohio in December; in the 1,650-yard freestyle, Anna Kalandadze, a UPenn teammate, finished second - 38 seconds behind her.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, center, signs a bill Thursday in Pierre, that will ban transgender women and girls from playing in school sports leagues that match their gender identity
Meanwhile, federal judges halted enforcement of similar laws in Idaho and West Virginia, while the Justice Department challenged bans in other states as violations of federal law.
The Republican governor touted the ban at a bill signing ceremony in the Capitol, telling reporters:
'We will ensure that we have fairness and a level playing field for female athletes here in the state of South Dakota, at the K-12 level and at the university level.'
Opponents have decried the bill as bullying and say it sends a message that transgender people are not welcome in the state.
'At a time when young people are facing an unprecedented need for support, it is devastating to see politicians instead invent new ways to exclude them,' said Sam Ames, the director of advocacy at The Trevor Project, which advocates for transgender youth.
Noem, pictured, is the first governor to sign such a ban this year,
making South Dakota the 10th state to enact such a law
Noem lobbied forcefully for the bill this year after shying away from signing a similar ban last year.
She issued a 'style and form veto' in March 2021 that led to its demise and argued that it contained flawed language that put the state at risk of litigation and retribution from the NCAA. But the same month, she issued executive orders that restricted participation in female sports to allow those assigned female at birth.
But Noem, who has positioned herself for a 2024 run for the White House, seized on the momentum this year of a cause taking hold among Republicans.
The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the bill's passage or whether it would take action as a result.
The college athletics organization last month adopted a sport-by-sport approach for transgender athletes, allowing each sport's national governing body to determine its policy on transgender participation.
Last month, a South Dakota legislative committee approved a bill championed by Noem to ban transgender women and girls from participating in school sports leagues that match their gender identity.
With the Republican governor's full-fledged lobbying, the bill received enthusiastic approval in the Republican-dominated Senate State Affairs committee, clearing a legislative hurdle that was a key roadblock to similar South Dakota bills in the past.
It was the first bill the committee took up last year, as lawmakers fast-tracked it through the Statehouse.
Every Republican on the committee approved the bill, despite warnings from opponents that it alienates and bullies transgender students, and exposes public schools to legal action for a political cause that has not been an issue in South Dakota.
Proponents said it protects girls' sports from trans athletes who may be bigger, faster and stronger than their peers.
The nine other states that have signed legislation banning transgender female athletes from participating in women's sports teams are Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, West Virginia, and Tennessee.
Other states including Kentucky, Connecticut, Michigan, Pennsylvania have had similar bills proposed, however they are not expected to advance.
Bills in New Mexico and News Hampshire had previously failed before they could even be debated.
Ten US states with laws banning transgender girls, college-age women from playing in women's school sports leagues:
1. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a law in April 2021 restricting transgender students from participating in K-12 sports.
2. Arkansas banned transgender athletes from joining female sports teams in March 2021, becoming one of the first few states to do so.
3. Texas passed Senate Bill 29 to enact a ban through state law
4. Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed the 'Fairness in Women's Sports Act' in March 2020, which has since been at the center of multiple lawsuits.
6. Mississippi banned transgender athletes from competing on girls' or women's sports teams in March. The ban will become enforced July 1.
7. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill to ban trans female athletes in May.
8. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill in April that restricts transgender athletes from competing in female sports in middle and high schools and colleges.
8. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed a similar bill on Thursday, set to take effect starting July 1.
9. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a law in May banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports.
Teammates demand ban for dominant trans swimmer
The record breaker's colleagues support her transition
but not her participation in women's competition
Lia Thomas has sparked widespread debate. © Hunter Martin/Getty Images
Sixteen teammates of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas wrote a letter to the University of Pennsylvania asking the school not to take legal action against recent National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) policy changes while insisting Thomas has an "unfair advantage" in women's events.
The members of the UPenn team sent the letter to the college and Ivy League officials on Thursday, and stressed that though they support Thomas in her life decisions, she should not be allowed to continue her record-breaking run in events such as next month's NCAA championships.
"We fully support Lia Thomas in her decision to affirm her gender identity and to transition from a man to a woman. Lia has every right to live her life authentically," began the letter, which has been obtained by the Washington Post.
"However, we also recognize that when it comes to sports competition, that the biology of sex is a separate issue from someone’s gender identity.
From #462 as a male to #1 as a female
"Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over [her] competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female," the teammates claimed.
"If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete."
And records that no real woman could ever break.
Thomas previously campaigned for UPenn's men's team for three seasons prior to undergoing hormone replacement therapy.
On the other side of the pandemic, she broke records in two separate meets this season which caused controversy and sparked debate as per the fairness of transgender athlete participation in events for the sex they have transitioned to across college sports.
In reaction to this, the NCAA passed responsibility on to the individual national governing bodies of each sport to determine participation for transgender athletes and how testosterone levels are documented prior to the beginning of their respective seasons.
On Tuesday, USA Swimming announced it had changed its policy on transgender athletes policy with immediate effect. Moving forward, a three-person panel made up of independent medical experts is to determine whether a swimmer boasts a competitive advantage as a result of her previous physical development as a male, and testosterone in a swimmer’s blood should not exceed 5 nmol/L for a continuous period of at least 36 months.
In their letter, Thomas' sixteen teammates asked UPenn not to challenge this through legal action against USA Swimming, which could prevent Thomas from taking part in future events but perhaps not the NCAA Championships from March 16-19 as the new policy will be gradually phased in through three stages.
The girls remained anonymous in the letter, which was sent by 1984 Olympic swimming gold medalist and lawyer Nancy Hogshead-Makar, who is also the chief executive of women's sports advocacy organization Champion Women.
In a telephone interview with the Washington Post, Hogshead-Makar said that the letter was sent on their behalf to evade retaliation as they have been told "we would be removed from the team or that we would never get a job offer" for speaking out against Thomas swimming in women’s competitions.
Additionally, Hogshead-Makar thinks the NCAA was wise to update the rules.
"It turns out that it was only based on a hypothesis and that it was just not true," she said of previous policy. "So now there’s been a lot more science on it, more research on it, and it shows that in many cases that ... you cannot roll back [male puberty]; you can’t take any medication to overcome what male puberty gives you.
"When it became clear, all this new science was coming through, transgender advocates were saying: ‘Oh, but it’s never going to happen. Nobody’s ever going to come and break women’s records. ... You’re not going to see that at the Olympics or at nationals.’ And then Lia came along. It just shows the need to update the NCAA rule," Hogshead-Makar added.
A UPenn parent claimed to the Washington Post that only "two or three" girls, one of whom is her daughter, were behind the letter but added that a colleague "who is a senior" approached a UPenn coach about Thomas' participation and was more or less told to "get over it".
"In a subsequent conversation with my daughter, she expressed how she’s really unhappy with the situation, she thinks it’s wrong, and so on, but she thinks that since we’re at this point of the season already, she thinks at this point Lia should just be able to finish out the season. That’s another perspective," the parent explained.
Thomas found support from some teammates, though, who sent a statement out after an unidentified UPenn swimmer said to Fox News that Thomas has a "monumental" advantage over the rest of them.
"We want to express our full support for Lia in her transition," the swimmers said, as reported by ESPN. "We value her as a person, teammate, and friend.
"The sentiments put forward by an anonymous member of our team are not representative of the feelings, values, and opinions of the entire Penn team, composed of 39 women with diverse backgrounds," the statement declared.
I seriously doubt that this is representative of the feelings, values, and opinions of the whole team. How can a team of athletes work so hard to hopefully place 2nd or 3rd in competition? It's ludicrous!
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Professor stripped of contact with students over pro-child sex remarks
Stephen Kershnar said it was ‘not obvious’ to him that pedophilic sexual contact
was necessarily wrong
A New York college professor who made remarks in favor of sex between adults and young children has been stripped of contact with students and banned from campus as the college’s investigation continues.
The State University of New York at Fredonia (SUNY Fredonia) launched an investigation this week after video clips of philosophy professor Stephen Kershnar defending pedophilia went viral online.
In the clips, Kershnar said it was “not obvious to me that it is in fact wrong” for adults to have sex with willing children and that “the notion that it’s wrong even with a one-year-old is not quite obvious” either. Kershnar even claimed there was a “good reason to believe that there’s actually a strong benefit to adult-child sex.”
After social media users called for Kershnar to be fired, SUNY Fredonia President Stephen H. Kolison issued a statement on Tuesday claiming that the matter was under review.
“The views expressed by the professor are reprehensible and do not represent the values of SUNY Fredonia in any way, shape or form,” Kolison said.
And yet you knew he had those views years ago...
On Thursday, Kolison issued an update to the investigation and revealed that Kershnar had since been prohibited from having contact with his students.
Effective immediately and until further notice, the professor is being assigned to duties that do not include his physical presence on campus and will not have contact with students while the investigation is ongoing
“Please allow me to reiterate my earlier statement that I view the content of the video as absolutely abhorrent,” Kolison continued, adding that he “cannot stress strongly enough that the independent viewpoints of this individual professor are in no way representative of the values of the SUNY Fredonia campus.”
Kershnar, however, had been making similar remarks for over twenty years and had authored a book on pedophilia and adult-child sex in 2015. SUNY Fredonia’s official profile for Kershnar even boasted that the professor had written extensively “on such diverse topics” as “adult-child sex,” among other things.
Kershnar has a history of making controversial arguments and has written articles titled, ‘For Torture: A Rights-Based Defense’, ‘A Liberal Argument for Slavery’, and ‘For Discrimination Against Women’.
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