Virtual violence: Historical Context, EU and UK Legislation

In mimicing the real world, new significant concerns have been raised relating to 'physical' virtual assault taking place in virtual reality (VR). The psychological trauma is akin to that of physical-world assaults even though there is abscence of physical contact. 

Legally this raises grave concerns about how to adjudicate the psychological impact of virtual assault and assess the level of emotional and psychological distress that occurs in the victim of assault, when embodied in the virtual experience. 

In previous journal posts, we have considered coercive control and how this can lead to physical assault. We established that there is an unusually high level of female learners in healthcare, 1 in 3 females experience domestic abuse within their intimate personal relationships, and legislation and policy supporting safe learning environments is integral to training and development within healthcare. 

We now move to examine the space between 'real' and 'virtual assault, physical and virtual environments, the climate of increased violence against women across Europe and the UK, as we ask, What is the broader impact? Given the seeming interoperability between real and virtual spaces, Could current legislation protect women against violence in VR spaces and beyond? 

We will examine: 

1. European Violence Against Women discourse 

2. Historic Domestic Violence law 

3. Recent changes to UK Domestic Violence legislation

4. Online Safety legislation (Designed to protect children)  

European Violence Against Women

Directive EU 2024/1385

The directive is detailed and should be read in it's entirety and given that VR mimics immersive-interation from real life experience, all aspects are entirely relevant. However, we need to think about how this directive might inform a set of VR safety design principles that could be specifically protective of women, 

Historic Domestic Violence law 

Refuge UK has documented how domestic abuse legislation has evolved between 1853 - 2021. 

Historically, domestic abuse was a blind spot. Culturally, violience between intimate partners was considered a private concern, where outsiders were reluctant to interfere. If it was reported to the police, it was not considered to be a priority. Often, on speaking with both parties, there was a reluctance on the part of the victim to identify the abusive partner or, on scene they incident was considered 'mutal abuse' when in fact there was a clear abusive, more powerful partner and so on. 

Recent changed to domestic violence now includes attempted strangulation that is not life-ending whereas previously, this was ncessary for sucessful prosecution.

Recent changes to UK Domestic Violence legislation

Refuge UK goes on to detail a number of recent amendments to Domestic Abuse legislation including recent laws relating to the criminalisation of coercive control (2015), the definition of domestic abuse (2021), Non-fatal strangulation and suffocation made a criminal offence (without physical sign of injury as it's known to preempt femicide (June 2022)*, and the late inclusion of women and girls in the Online Safety Act (2023).

The law has also recently been extended to include coercive control which includes psychological and financial control. 

   

Online Safety legislation (Designed to protect children)  

Online safeguarding laws have been recently implemented to protect vulnerable children in online spaces. 

Virtual Violence paper

Victims report experiencing trauma that mirrors that of real-world survivors, encompassing a spectrum of emotional and psychological distress. A paper reviewing the literature on the immersive nature of VR and its capacity to elicit genuine psychological responses, has been written by Shaji George,A (2024). The paper examines whether virtual sexual assaults should be prosecuted similarly to physical assaults, even if the country of the assault could be defined and given there could be legal resources made available for the prosecution. Although the paper refers to young age group demographic representative of a larger proportion of VR users, it does not specify gender. The paper goes on to discuss recommendations which are of particular interest to women and girls that inhabit virtual spaces, aligning them with safety requirements that should be met (but often aren’t), in real, physical spaces. 

 

Finally... 

This post has signposted to key legislation relating to the evolution of laws that protect women and young girls in real space and digitally online. The question arises that as technology advances and women demand more safe spaces in the real world, legislation will become more extensive and protective. Successful prosecution of the law sets a prescedent,  and this in turn lays the foundation for historical prosecution. The extensive effect of PTSD which physical and virtual digital abuse has on women, is life-altering (and potentially life-ending). It manifests as trauma that should not be pathologised in psychiatry, but acknowledged as a damaging part of the world (and likely patriarchal systems embedded in interconnected systems in society), we live in today. 

Next...

The next post will look specifically at Meta Quests own safety design policies, as we ask... 

Does VR UX design go 'beyond the exit button' to protect against psychological harm to women and girls? 

References 

Shaji George, A (2024) Virtual Violence: Legal and Psychological Ramifications of Sexual Assault in Virtual Reality Environments, Available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10651450 Accessed: 29 December 2025. 

Refuge UK. Know your rights: A history of domestic abuse legislation in the UK. Available at https://refuge.org.uk/news/know-your-rights-a-history-of-domestic-abuse-legislation-in-the-uk/#:~:text=1861%20%E2%80%93%20Offences%20Against%20the%20Person,attempting%20to%20choke%20an%20individual.&text=1878%20%E2%80%93%20Matrimonial%20Causes%20Act%20%E2%80%93%20Allows,marriage%20to%20obtain%20separation%20orders. Accessed 29 December 2025. 

Directive (EU) 2024/1385 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 May 2024 on combating violence against women and domestic violence. Available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2024/1385/oj/eng Accessed: 29 December 2025.