--- title: Game Developer Calls for Change After Virtual Reality Grope description: A developer of a virtual reality game said his “heart sank” when he learned a woman had been virtually groped while playing his game. canonical: https://time.com/4545943/virtual-reality-sex-assault-developer/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-26T13:37:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:41.680Z og:title: Game Developer Saddened by Virtual Reality Sex Assault og:description: "This must never happen again" og:url: https://time.com/4545943/virtual-reality-sex-assault-developer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2935ce2137123fa6/6988ab9fcf40a824f7c45503/vr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Girl using VR glasses, lights around her og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game Developer Saddened by Virtual Reality Sex Assault twitter:description: "This must never happen again" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2935ce2137123fa6/6988ab9fcf40a824f7c45503/vr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Game Developer Saddened by Virtual Reality Sex Assault: 'This Must Never Happen Again' > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Oct 26, 2016 1:37 PM UTC  Girl using VR glasses, lights around her Girl using VR glasses, lights around her Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Oct 26, 2016 1:37 PM UTC A [developer of a virtual reality game](http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/25/technology/developer-sexual-assault-virtual-reality/index.html) said his “heart sank” when he learned that a woman had been virtually groped while playing his game and pledged to enable controls to ensure no other player gets sexually assaulted. Aaron Stanton—who co-created QuiVr, an archery game for the HTC Vive—[said](http://uploadvr.com/dealing-with-harassment-in-vr/) he was “deeply saddened” to read a [female gamer’s account](https://medium.com/athena-talks/my-first-virtual-reality-sexual-assault-2330410b62ee#.ju0wlo8m3) last week of how another player sexually assaulted her in the game. The woman, who goes by the pseudonym Jordan Belamire, wrote on Medium that a user named BigBro442 repeatedly chased her to virtually grab and pinch her chest and rub her crotch while she yelled through her headset for him to stop. “Our first response was, ‘Let’s make sure this never happens again,'” Stanton told CNNMoney. The developer suggested that other virtual reality game creators combine forces to make a “power gesture” or a “safe word” to stop harassment in virtual reality. “We need to offer tools that give players better controls, not simply better ways to hide,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4545943/virtual-reality-sex-assault-developer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4545943/virtual-reality-sex-assault-developer/"},"headline":"Game Developer Saddened by Virtual Reality Sex Assault: 'This Must Never Happen Again'","datePublished":"2016-10-26T13:37:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:41.680Z","description":"A female gamer said another user virtually rubbed her chest and crotch","url":"https://time.com/4545943/virtual-reality-sex-assault-developer/","keywords":["motto","tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2935ce2137123fa6/6988ab9fcf40a824f7c45503/vr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2935ce2137123fa6/6988ab9fcf40a824f7c45503/vr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Girl using VR glasses, lights around her","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4545943/virtual-reality-sex-assault-developer/","name":"Game Developer Saddened by Virtual Reality Sex Assault: 'This Must Never Happen Again'"}}]}] ```