An Observatory Report from the Europol Innovation Lab
Policing in
the metaverse:
what law enforcement
needs to know
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
An Observatory Report from the Europol Innovation Lab
PDF | ISBN 978-92-95220-47-8 | ISSN 2600-5182 | DOI: 10.2813/81062 | QL-AS-22-002-EN-N
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Cite this publication: Europol (2022), Policing in the metaverse: what law enforcement
needs to know, an observatory report from the Europol Innovation Lab,
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Contents
Foreword
Introduction
What is the Metaverse?
The basics of the metaverse
Current state of play
Technology powering metaverses
Adverse use and crime in the metaverse
Identity
Financial: money laundering, scams
Harassment and (child) abuse and exploitation
Terrorism
Mis- and disinformation
Feasibility of monitoring/logging evidence
Impact in the physical world
LE use of metaverse (and related technology)
Being present regardless of distance
Training
Alternative punishments/interventions
What to do and what is being done?
Build your online presence and experience the metaverse
Start the conversation
Monitor and experience the metaverse and related
technologies: know what is happening and what you
are talking about
Engage with companies creating it
Conclusion
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5
7
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9
10
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3
Europol launched its Innovation Lab in 2019, to help keep Europol
at the forefront of law enforcement innovation. I believe it is
important for law enforcement agencies to anticipate changes to
the reality in which they have to provide safety and security. That
is why our Innovation Lab includes an Observatory function, to
engage in strategic foresight and help law enforcement agencies to
understand the implications of emerging technologies.
The metaverse will bring us new ways of interacting and whole
new (virtual) worlds to live in, potentially transforming our lives,
just as the internet has done in the last three decades. This report
will undoubtedly help police chiefs, law enforcement agencies and
policy makers to begin to grasp this new environment, so that they
can begin to adapt and prepare for policing in the metaverse.
Foreword
Catherine De Bolle
Executive Director of Europol
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POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
The metaverse has been described as the next iteration of the
internet.
1
As was the case with the emergence of the internet, we do
not know what direction the metaverse is going to take. Moreover,
like the internet, it will likely keep evolving periodically taking new
directions. Keeping in mind that historically law enforcement was
generally slower in developing capabilities for digitally committed
crimes, we should as soon as possible begin preparing for the
emergence of the metaverse from a law enforcement perspective.
With the recent launch of Meta’s platform Horizon Worlds in
France and Spain the company is bringing its immersive world
or metaverse experience to Europe.
2
When Mark Zuckerberg
announced
3
in October 2021 that Facebook would now be called
Meta, it brought the concept of the metaverse to the public’s
attention. Google, Microsoft and many others are also making big
investments in this technology.
4
With an expected EUR 1.6 trillion
boost to the global economy by 2030
5
and with 25% of people
expected to spend at least an hour daily in the Metaverse
6
, it will
certainly have an impact on the (in)security of citizens and be
something law enforcement needs to be looking into.
To help make sense of the impact that metaverse and the
technologies underpinning it may have on criminal activities and
how the police will need to adapt to respond to new security needs
of citizens, the Europol Innovation Lab organised an event on the
metaverse for European law enforcement agencies in June 2022.
During the event, academics from different elds of expertise
shared the results of their research on human behaviours in digital
environments, the developing economic ecosystems related
to these environments and the metaverse. The company Meta
shared their vision of and approach to the metaverse. Experts in
law enforcement spoke about their experiences and thoughts on
what challenges the metaverse may present in terms of security
and discussed ways for the police to adapt its practices. The event
was attended by over 120 representatives from law enforcement
agencies from all over Europe. In a series of foresight exercises, the
participants expressed a clear need for resources to help European
police ocers understand better the risks and opportunities posed
by the metaverse and its related technologies.
1 Journal of Law and Technology, ‘The Metaverse: Are We Prepared for the Dangers of This
Digital Reality?’, 2022, [accessed 24 August 2022], https://jolt.richmond.edu/2022/03/31/
the-metaverse-are-we-prepared-for-the-dangers-of-this-digital-reality/. 
2  Facebook, post by Mark Zuckerberg, 2022, [accessed 18 August 2022], https://www.
facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10114625396809351&set=a.612287952871.
3  The New York Times, ‘The Metaverse Is Mark Zuckerberg’s Escape Hatch’, 2021, [accessed
1 September 2022], https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/technology/meta-facebook-
zuckerberg.html
4  Make Use Of, ‘These 8 Tech Giants Have Invested Big in The Metaverse’, 2022, [accessed 1
September 2022], https://www.makeuseof.com/companies-investing-in-metaverse/
5  PWC, ‘Virtual and augmented reality could deliver a £1.4trillion boost to the global economy
by 2030 – PwC’, 2020, [accessed 1 September 2022], https://www.pwc.com/id/en/media-
centre/press-release/2020/english/virtual-and-augmented-reality-could-deliver-a-p1-
4trillion-boost.html
6  Gartner, ‘Gartner Predicts 25% of People Will Spend At Least One Hour Per Day in the
Metaverse by 2026’, 2022, [accessed 1 September 2022], https://www.gartner.com/en/
newsroom/press-releases/2022-02-07-gartner-predicts-25-percent-of-people-will-spend-
at-least-one-hour-per-day-in-the-metaverse-by-2026.
Introduction
5
This report aims at bringing together all the information gathered
during this event. It provides a rst, law enforcement-centric outlook
at current developments, potential implications for law enforcement,
as well as key recommendations as to what the law enforcement
community could do to prepare for the future.
The rst part presents the concept of immersive worlds and the
technologies underpinning it, such as virtual and mixed reality,
web3 and blockchain. In the second part, the report explores how
the metaverse can be abused in specic crime areas such as
nancial crime, online abuse and harassment, radicalisation, mass
surveillance and disinformation. But the metaverse could also
present opportunities for the police, not only from an investigation
perspective but also to engage more closely with the public it
serves or for training purposes. The third part of the report focuses
on those. The nal part of the report will explore best practices of
building police presence online and will provide recommendations
for police forces around the world to start thinking about their online
policing strategies for the future.
The Europol Innovation Lab is especially grateful to Mrs. Manon
den Dunnen from the Dutch National Police for sharing her inspiring
thoughts about our changing reality, and to Ms. Kjersti Rønholt
from the Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) of the Norwegian
Police for her pioneering work in establishing police presence in
digital environments. We would also like to thank our academic
contributors: Professor David Reid from Liverpool Hope University,
Professor Shane Johnson from University College London, and
Anna-Verena Nosthoff and Felix Maschewski from the Data
Politics Lab at Humboldt University Berlin. Lastly, we are grateful
to our colleagues in Europol at the European Cybercrime Centre
(EC3) and the EU Internet Referral Unit, as well as to the Oce of
the EU Counter Terrorism Coordinator (EU CTC) for their valuable
contributions.
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POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
The basics of the metaverse
The term metaverse was rst coined in 1992 by the author Neal
Stephenson in his science ction novel Snow Crash. Just as the
metaverse was science ction in 1992, today a ‘real‘ metaverse
still does not yet exist. The metaverse is often described as a
hypothetical iteration of the internet as a single, universal virtual
world that presents the user with an immersive experience that
feels ‘real‘, usually through the use of a headset. In its very recent
denition, it can blur the lines between the physical and virtual
world to create a single blended, extended or mixed reality. As a
result, the metaverse is now just focused on virtual reality (VR), but
is increasingly being dened in terms of augmented reality (AR) or
extended or mixed reality (XR).
Since then the word has been frequently used to present a variety
of different visions on what a shared, immersive, and virtual world
might look like. From the grand visions presented, it may hold
great promise to allow people to enjoy experiences free of physical
limitations and have more autonomy because of decentralised
technology. In practice it will be shaped by companies building and
using it, and by how the people use the options provided by the
technology. Together that will determine whether it will be a utopian
place - or one rife with crime and abuse.
Proposed applications for metaverse technology go beyond gaming,
and include improving work productivity, interactive learning
environments, e-commerce, real estate and fashion. It seems likely
that most metaverse(s) will include a digital economy, where users
can create, purchase, and sell goods.
In the more idealistic and holistic vision of the metaverse, it is
interoperable, allowing people to take virtual items like clothes
or cars from one platform to another. Right now, most platforms
have virtual identities, avatars, and inventories that are tied to a
particular platform. However, a metaverse might allow one to create
a persona that can be taken everywhere in the metaverse with all its
characteristics and your belongings. To date this has remained very
limited however; as most platforms demand you create an account
specic for their platform.
In visions like that of Meta, the metaverse is considered to be the
evolution of internet
7
, or an embodied internet. Other visions include
immersive oine experiences that enable users to experience a
different reality, or a combination of the physical and virtual world
in a type of mixed reality. An important factor in this is the idea of
so-called ‘digital twins’, which provide a model of oine entities
that digitally represents them as accurately as possible, often
providing real-time information from sensors. This will allow further
integration of the virtual and physical worlds by representing the
latter in real-time in the former, autonomously. Thus, integration of
7  Meta, ‘Connect 2021: Our vision for the metaverse’, 2021, [accessed 25 August 2022], https://
tech.fb.com/ar-vr/2021/10/connect-2021-our-vision-for-the-metaverse/
What is the
Metaverse?
7
the physical and virtual worlds goes both ways, blending
both worlds.
Examples of this are Seoul’s recent announcement to provide many
of its access to public services via the metaverse
8
is one such
example. Even entire countries, such as Singapore, are investing
heavily in providing digital twins.
9
An instance of avatar work can
be found at a café in Tokyo, where paralysed people control robot
waiters remotely. The waiter can see the café and the people in
it through the robot, and control it to wait the tables and start a
conversation. This enables people to do work they otherwise could
not do by using a physical avatar.
10
The metaverse and application of related technology are envisioned
in many different ways, but they all share the concept of immersion
in a (partial) virtual world, bringing experiences from the physical
world to the virtual realm. Even an Internet of Senses
11
and
implanted chips for full immersion
12
have been suggested. With
such interfaces, increasingly one may not be able to tell the virtual
from the physical.
We cannot know if there will be a single ‘metaverse’, a metaverse
of metaverses (a multiverse), or if it turns out to be just an
appealing term to encompass different technological developments
undertaken by big companies. However, as the metaverse paper by
the Council of the European Union’s Analysis and Research Team
notes, “As is the case for most of the tech sector, the product itself
creates the need.”
13
Moreover, with the combined market for VR
and AR estimated to be worth EUR 4 billion, a number forecasted
to grow to EUR 36 billion
14
, many companies are investing in
metaverse technology. While this is not a guarantee for adoption
of the metaverse, the sizeable investments from a broad range of
companies makes widespread adoption, of at least some aspects,
more likely. Therefore, a closer look at what the technology means
for law enforcement is warranted.
8  ICT Network News, ‘Seoul to use metaverse platform to deliver public services’, 2021,
[accessed 7 September 2022], https://www.ict-nn.com/seoul-to-use-metaverse-platform-
to-deliver-public-services/
9  Venture Beat, ‘How Singapore created the rst country-scale digital twin’, 2022, [accessed
7 September 2022], https://venturebeat.com/business/how-singapore-created-the-rst-
country-scale-digital-twin/
10  Barista Magazine Online, DAWN Avatar: A Robot-Run Café Made for Inclusion in Tokyo’,
2021, [accessed 5 September 2022], https://www.baristamagazine.com/dawn-avatar-a-
robot-run-cafe-made-for-inclusion-in-tokyo/
11  Ericsson, ‘Internet of senses’, [accessed 25 August 2022], https://www.ericsson.com/en/6g/
internet-of-senses.
12  Futurism, ‘Elon Musk Says the Metaverse Sucks and Neuralink Will Be Better’, 2021,
[accessed 17 August 2022], https://futurism.com/elon-musk-metaverse-sucks-neuralink-
better/.
13  Council of the European Union, ‘Metaverse – Virtual World, Real Challenges’, 2022, page 5,
[accessed 26 July 2022], https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/54987/metaverse-paper-
9-march-2022.pdf.
14  IDC, ‘Spend on Emerging Device Categories – including Wearables, AR/VR Headsets, and
Smart Home – Will See Continued Robust Growth, According to IDC’, 2021, [accessed 18
August 2022], https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS48284221
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POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
Current state of play
The concept of virtual worlds is not new, and technology like virtual
and augmented reality has been around for a while. This will all have
to be further developed and supported by additional technology
to present a metaverse as immersive as it is currently envisaged.
Considering this, there are some examples of metaverse-like
experiences, mostly in gaming. These games may give us an
idea of how a metaverse could work, but they do not live up to the
immersive and interoperable character described by advocates of
the metaverse.
The earliest examples of a virtual world may have been multi-user
dungeons dating back to the 1970s.
15
Players would be presented
with a text-based description of the environment and events, and
would interact with the world and other players through text. A
prominent example of a more visual experience is Second Life.
This is often referred to as an early example for its replication of
all aspects of life, launching back in 2003.
16
Companies opened
oces and bands like U2 gave concerts there, but it never broke
through to attract the mass following like social media platforms
such as Facebook did.
17
The two closest, and most often referred
to examples of a metaverse, are Fortnite and Roblox.
18
Fortnite is a
battle royale videogame with a 3D virtual world where players can
engage in non-game interactions such as concerts, whereas Roblox
is a platform where people can create their own experiences or
mini-games and share these with other users, free or for a fee, and
use their own avatar in all of these experiences.
19
Both games have
tens of millions of players.
These examples are mostly experienced through computers or
smartphones. Depending on the level of immersiveness, accessing
the metaverse ‘proper‘ will require some kind of headset for virtual
or augmented reality applications.
20
VR refers to instances where
technology is used to present a virtual world, which is experienced
as reality whereas XR (MR/AR) presents new information as an
overlay on top of the physical world. New devices are developing
at an incredibly quick pace; many see the new generation of XR
devices as the natural successor to the laptop or mobile phone.
15  Rappler, ‘The metaverse isn’t here yet, but it already has a long history’, 2022, [accessed 5
September 2022], https://www.rappler.com/technology/features/metaverse-not-here-yet-
but-has-long-history/
16  Make Use Of, ‘What Is Second Life? A Brief History of the Metaverse’, 2022, [accessed 2
September 2022], https://www.makeuseof.com/what-is-second-life-history-metaverse/.
17  IEEE Spectrum, ‘What Can the Metaverse Learn From Second Life?’, 2021, [accessed 3
September 2022], https://spectrum.ieee.org/metaverse-second-life
18  OMDIA, ‘Roblox dethrones Fortnite in Omdia’s new Metaverse Games Benchmark ‘, 2022,
[accessed 18 August 2022], https://omdia.tech.informa.com/pr/2022-jul/roblox-dethrones-
fortnite-in-omdias-new-metaverse-games-benchmark
19  BirminghamLive, ‘What is a Metaverse, why are Fortnite and Robolox building one?’, 2021,
[accessed 17 August 2022], https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/gaming/what-
metaverse-fortnite-robolox-building-21974498
20  Medium, ‘The Technology of the Metaverse, It’s Not Just VR’, 2020, [accessed 25 August
2022], https://medium.com/swlh/the-technology-of-the-metaverse-its-not-just-vr-
78fb3c603fe9.
9
Technology powering metaverses
While some virtual and augmented reality technology has been
around for some time, it is still under heavy development and is
supported by many different technologies, like spatial computing,
sensors, haptics and location services.
21
As with XR and VR,
metaverse creations will rely on extended hardware and software
to access the platform, as well as accompanying technology to
facilitate the platforms. The technology known as Web3 is often
seen as an enabling technology for the metaverse. This chapter will
provide an explanation of this technology to help understand how
this all comes together in creating a metaverse.
Headsets are used for VR applications and the most immersive
XR applications. A headset needs to be both comfortable and a
powerful enough computer to be able to present and control the
metaverse experience in the sense that it will present a life-like
reality in which we feel fully immersed. So far, the development and
general consumer adoption of these extended reality applications
has been held back by price and the limitations of such headsets,
since the wireless networking speed is too low and the computing
power required can make them uncomfortable or necessitate wired
connections that limit users’ movement.
22
Moreover, they often
cause nausea, due to motion sickness, when used for some time.
23
Another issue, mainly for virtual reality, is limitation of physical
user movement. To provide a good experience for moving around
in VR, a big empty space is needed to avoid obstacles such as
walls or nearby objects. To allow for better interaction with (and
more convincing creation of) virtual environments, advances in
spatial computing will be the main deciding factor. This will be
accompanied by improvements in location services to provide the
user’s location in physical space as accurately as possible.
24
To improve the immersion of the experience, new interfaces like
haptics, interaction and feedback through sensory suits or even
neural links are being suggested. All this technology is still in
development.
25
In particular new VR or XR platforms are attracting
a lot of attention from developers such as Meta, Apple and Google.
Such devices are seen as not only a new type of computer, but as
21  McKinsey & Company, ‘Technology Trends Outlook 2022’, 2022, [accessed 7 September
2022], https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/
mckinsey%20digital/our%20insights/the%20top%20trends%20in%20tech%202022/
mckinsey-tech-trends-outlook-2022-research-overview.pdf
22  TechRadar, ‘This Oculus VR headset could feature lifelike resolution – here’s why that
matters ‘, 2021, [accessed 23 August 2022], https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/this-
oculus-vr-headset-could-feature-lifelike-resolution-heres-why-that-matters.
23  Space.com, ‘What causes motion sickness in VR, and how can you avoid it?’, 2021,
[accessed 5 September 2022], https://www.space.com/motion-sickness-in-vr
24  McKinsey & Company, ‘Technology Trends Outlook 2022’, 2022, [accessed 7 September
2022], https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/
mckinsey%20digital/our%20insights/the%20top%20trends%20in%20tech%202022/
mckinsey-tech-trends-outlook-2022-research-overview.pdf
25  Financial Times, ‘Investors gear up for ‘gold rush’ in metaverse hardware’, 2022, [accessed 2
September], https://www.ft.com/content/51351f23-63b8-458c-9ee2-a7cbda43c287
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POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
a fundamentally new computing paradigm; this is called spatial
computing.
For metaverse experiences, software is needed to allow devices
to provide access to the metaverse and to create and serve the
experiences on these platforms. The computational requirements
needed to provide realistic simulation of imagined worlds in the
metaverse, with social interactions and large crowds, are quite
demanding. Simultaneously, these devices need to monitor
the user and their surroundings, adding to the demands on the
hardware. However, advances in computer processors meet these
computational requirements.
Another limitation to development is the absence of a set of
technical standards, like W3C for web development. With every
major company developing their own software, it is dicult to
navigate this space as a developer and the interoperability of
metaverses lies far ahead. Moreover, with the propriety of the code
as we have seen it on social media, it will be dicult to achieve
transparency and be certain the privacy of a user is guaranteed.
There are a few attempts at standardisation, like universal scene
description for 3D computer graphics
26
and OpenXR for accessing
VR and AR devices.
27
Major online service providers are still
developing for their own platforms for now;
28
however cross-
platform compatibility is becoming more and more common.
For example, Nvidia’s Omniverse platform can use its proprietary
version of universal scene description, as can the Unity engine.
A good example of this is provided by WebXR. This is an open
protocol designed to connect the different VR or metaverse
platforms through the use of a browser. This allows a user to
connect different platforms to the metaverse from a browser.
As such it opens facilitates the idea of interoperability from one
environment to another.
29
Web3
Web3 is the term that is used for the next iteration of the internet,
based on decentralisation, privacy and anonymity, with users and
creators in charge of the internet and their data. Decentralisation
in the Web3 is achieved using protocols like peer-to-peer (p2p) and
blockchain technology. These decentralised services may have
severe implications for the attribution of online crime as well as
securing digital evidence of such crimes.
26  NVidia, ‘Universal Scene Description Key to Shared Metaverse, GTC Panelists Say’, 2021,
[accessed 23 August 2022], https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/04/27/usd-metaverse-gtc/.
27  Steam, ‘Introducing SteamVR 1.16’, 2021, [accessed 26 August 2022], https://store.
steampowered.com/news/app/250820/view/3044967019267211914
28  News18, ‘Meta and Other Tech Giants Form Metaverse Standards Body, Apple Missing ‘,
2022, [accessed 24 August 2022], https://www.news18.com/news/tech/meta-and-other-
tech-giants-form-metaverse-standards-body-apple-missing-5419855.html
29  VentureBeat, ‘A primer on the Metaverse: The next iteration of the Internet’, 2017, [accessed
24 August 2022], https://venturebeat.com/arvr/a-primer-on-the-metaverse-the-next-
iteration-of-the-internet/.
11
Currently multiple projects combine blockchain and p2p
technologies to provide services like gaming content, Non-fungible
Tokens (NFTs) (which can be seen as proof of ownership on the
blockchain), or storage solutions for media sharing. This is already-
existing technology that may be used for the development of the
metaverse and be further developed to accommodate the specic
needs of metaverse technology.
While this technology may provide a decentralised internet, the
technology is being taken up by big corporations to support their
platforms too, leading to centralised services.
Blockchain
Use of the blockchain has been suggested as a means to provide
the technology to allow users to take an avatar and assets from one
metaverse to the next. Moreover, cryptocurrency is expected to play
an important role in economic activity in the metaverse.
30
Blockchain technology is based on having a record of
cryptographically linked blocks. Every change results in the creation
of a new block linked to previous blocks, creating a chain. This chain
means no single record can be altered without altering all following
blocks as well. Implementing the blockchain as a public distributed
ledger means all records are public and any change is veried by
several nodes in the network, creating additional safeguards of the
integrity of the data on the blockchain.
Blockchain technology is most commonly known for its
implementation for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The blockchain provides a record of all transactions or changes
made to a record and any transaction or change is checked
by multiple different sources guaranteeing the validity of all
changes. This may be useful for proof of ownership or validation
of certicates. It is usually implemented to contain references to
information, but it could be used to transfer the data itself as well.
Use of the blockchain has been proposed as a way to facilitate the
interoperability of different metaverse platforms. In this case the
records would contain all relevant information on the user’s avatar,
like attributes and possessions. By consulting the blockchain all
platforms would nd the same information on the user. That way
users may appear the same on all these platforms (i.e. outts and
goods, but also metadata on the user) and thus be enabled to carry
one identity across all platforms.
30  Citi GPS, ‘METAVERSE AND MONEY’, 2022, [accessed 2 September], https://icg.citi.com/
icghome/what-we-think/citigps/insights/metaverse-and-money_20220330
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POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
As with blockchain mentioned above, new technology will always
provide new attack vectors for criminals. Bad actors will have
new chances to take advantages of weaknesses in these new
technologies from XR to interface devices as companies compete
to dene the metaverse market. Making it all the more important to
call for safety by design.
31
Just as with the early years of the internet, we cannot know exactly
in which ways metaverse-native crimes or the metaverse version
of cybercrimes may occur. We can be certain, however, that like
the development of the internet, as the metaverse develops it will
open up different opportunities for criminal activity. With Roblox
rising to the 8th place as most imitated brand in phishing attempts
according to last year’s Q4 2021 brand phishing report, metaverse
applications have certainly caught the attention of criminals.
32
Knowing Roblox is played most by children, 67% is under 16,
33
makes this all the more worrying.
Ransomware-type attacks may be particularly effective on
metaverse devices. Considering the increased importance of digital
assets in the metaverse, losing access to them may be particularly
debilitating. If this is loss is in XR, where the virtual is blended with
the real world, then this loss may have even greater consequences.
We will explore how the metaverse could potentially be used in
some specic crime areas, to present a rst glance at how the
metaverse could affect law enforcement.
Identity
Increasing adoption and functionality of metaverse technology
means digital identities, and access to them, will become more
valuable. As the virtual representation of users in the metaverse
becomes more realistic and permanent, this provides opportunities
to convincingly copy user appearance (so called deepfakes).
With more advanced ways to interact with the system by using
different sensors, eye tracking, face tracking and haptics for
instance, there will be far more detailed biometric information about
individual users. That information will allow criminals to even more
convincingly impersonate and steal someone’s identity. Moreover,
this information may be used to manipulate users in a far more
nuanced, but far more effective way than is possible at present on
the internet.
This creates issues of trust in the identity of the ‘people’ in the
metaverse; how can you be sure of who you are actually speaking
31  Forbes, ‘Metaverse As The New Attack Vector And Other Security Headlines To
Come In 2022’, 2022, [accessed 1 September 2022], https://www.forbes.com/sites/
forbestechcouncil/2022/02/15/metaverse-as-the-new-attack-vector-and-other-security-
headlines-to-come-in-2022/
32  CheckPoint, ‘DHL Replaces Microsoft as Most Imitated Brand in Phishing Attempts in Q4
2021’, 2022, [accessed 1 September 2022], https://blog.checkpoint.com/2022/01/17/dhl-
replaces-microsoft-as-most-imitated-brand-in-phishing-attempts-in-q4-2021/.
33  Backlinko, ‘Roblox User and Growth Stats 2022’, 2022, [accessed 16 September 2022],
https://backlinko.com/roblox-users.
Adverse use
and crime in the
metaverse
13
to? Can AI be used to process what you are looking at, how you feel,
or how you interact with people, and can this be used to inuence
people? This is, of course, an issue on the internet in general already,
but metaverse applications, because of the signicant increase
in the amount of valuable biometric information it can gather, will
present vastly more problems in this regard.
At the same time, there is the matter of who owns the user’s virtual
identity. If the owner of the platform claims ownership of all user-
generated data, including any intellectual property created through
their platform, this could extend to user avatars or representations
on it. The more detailed that data becomes and the more closely
that avatar resembles and represents the actual user, the more this
becomes a question of who owns the user’s identity, the biometric
and spatial information that the user provides to the system.
A person’s identity is dened by more than the appearance or
avatar the user has. A user generates data through interactions with
the platform. That data may become so detailed it may feel like
a very accurate representation of the user’s identity. Deep insight
into desires and actions may dene a user in practice. Knowing
all small mannerisms of a user and where the user’s eyes go to
unconsciously, for instance, may be more dening that the exact
look of an avatar. Would a platform then be able to sell or duplicate
this virtual identity by virtue of owning the rights to the user’s avatar
or data? And what happens when criminals extract this data and
user proles?
Criminals have already been selling digital ngerprints on the
dark web, which imitates the user’s device’s characteristics and
behaviour. This allows a user of the service to use a browser plugin
to imitate a victim’s digital ngerprint for the purposes of fooling
authentication systems.
34
With the very detailed information
possibly gathered from users of the metaverse such exploits would
become harder to ght. These could even be used to generate
synthetic identities with all the depth of a person by adding a
behavioural layer to deepfakes.
That would certainly create opportunities for abuse of your identity,
or to inuence your actions. With metaverse applications detecting
unconscious signals, it may be able to present information to
inuence your decisions before you are even aware of it. Moreover,
if the detailed personal information were used convincingly to
imitate a person, this would make it very hard for law enforcement
to know who the user is. This makes a very strong identication, or
know your customer (KYC), procedure very important for metaverse
platforms, in order to prevent identity theft and provide trust
between users, as well as provide law enforcement with the means
to investigate crimes committed on the platform.
34  CreditUnionTimes, ‘The Rise of Digital Fingerprints in the Dark Marketplace Threatens
Identities’, 2019, [accessed 1 September 2022], https://www.cutimes.com/2019/08/28/the-
rise-of-digital-ngerprints-in-the-dark-marketplace-threatens-identities/.
14
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
The generation of very detailed biometric data may be inescapable,
as it is required to provide the life-like immersive experience of
the metaverse. The question will be how the platforms handle this
kind of data, in what ways is it processed and stored, and what
safeguards are implemented to prevent the harvesting of this
information by third parties. It will remain to be seen how well the
implementation of these platforms conform to the GDPR.
35
Criminals may also impersonate brands as well as people. This is a
particularly common practice for phishing. With these attempts bad
actors create emails to convince their victims these are legitimate
emails from a certain brand to make them download something or
click a link and thereby allow them to extract personal information
such as account or banking details. In the metaverse, this might
even be done with entire fake stores the user may just walk past
and be convinced by the storefront. As more people start to use the
metaverse, we should expect to see an increase of brand phishing
related to and in the metaverse.
36
Financial: money laundering, scams
Money and value may take different forms in the metaverse.
While NFTs may allow for proof of ownership of digital goods,
transactions in the metaverse may be facilitated by a range of
different cryptocurrencies depending on the platforms involved, and
at money is likely to persist as a means of entry from the regular to
the metaverse economy.
For the economic aspect of the metaverse, it will be essential
for users to be able to make payments easily and quickly. It
will be important to keep the costs of transfers low since most
transactions will be of small value. This means that, alongside
our usual at money and the big cryptocurrencies we now know,
it is likely to see the further implementation of platform-specic
currencies and other decentralised cryptocurrencies.
37
Following
these transactions will require knowledge of decentralised nance,
the different blockchain implementations as well as familiarity with
a range of different forms of digital currency.
The more one learns about metaverse plans from major players
like Epic Games and Meta, the more it seems that anti-money
laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) protections will
be as important as they are in the real world. In a space populated
by virtual businesses, selling virtual goods to avatars will require
virtual money. This provides opportunities to transfer money
35  Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, ‘Metaverse and Privacy’, 2022, [accessed 6
September 2022], https://www.aepd.es/en/prensa-y-comunicacion/blog/metaverse-and-
privacy
36  AIM, ‘Fighting cybercrime in metaverse’, 2022, [accessed 6 September 2022], https://
analyticsindiamag.com/ghting-cybercrime-in-metaverse/
37  Citi GPS , ‘Metaverse and Money: Decrypting the Future’, 2022, [accessed 01 September
2022], https://icg.citi.com/icghome/what-we-think/citigps/insights/metaverse-and-
money_20220330.
15
across borders in a way that is more dicult for the authorities to
monitor.
38
Cryptocurrencies are already being employed for purposes of
money laundering and facilitating criminal money transfers.
39
This is expected to grow with further development adoption
of cryptocurrencies. The possibilities for anonymous use of
cryptocurrencies will make it dicult for law enforcement to detect
these crimes.
The world of NFTs is rife with frauds, as well as misappropriation of
other people’s assets.
40
An NFT is a proof of ownership recorded on
the blockchain and therefore unique and guaranteed to be so by the
blockchain it is on. There are, however, ways to sell an NFT multiple
times, using suciently different smart contracts or offering it on
another blockchain. A seller does not even need to own what they
offer to sell it as an NFT. While big marketplaces would presume
to verify ownership, this is not practically possible because of the
sheer number of NFTs being offered. The result is a situation where
as many as 80% of NFTs created with OpenSea’s minting tool are
estimated to be illegitimate.
41
Additionally, while many NFTs are
being offered by anonymous identities, it is dicult for legitimate
creators of such virtual goods to establish their right of ownership.
For prevention purposes, law enforcement agencies need to be
aware of future NFT developments and future exploitations of the
technology as they evolve.
Harassment and (child) abuse and exploitation
Harassment on the internet is already a signicant issue, with as
many as 58% of girls in an international 2020 Plan International
survey having experienced online harassment.
42
Law enforcement
should therefore expect this kind of behaviour to exist in the
metaverse, with the potential for it to be even more damaging to the
victim. In 2007, one avatar in Second Life allegedly raped another.
A number of internet bloggers dismissed the simulated attack as
nothing more than digital ction, but police in Belgium opened an
investigation against the perpetrator.
43
More recently, a woman
38  Reuters, ‘UK group urges real-life treatment for virtual cash’, 2007, [accessed 21 September
2022], https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-secondlife-idUSL146725220070514.
39  Europol, ‘Cryptocurrencies: tracing the evolution of criminal nances’, 2022, [accessed
31 August 2022], https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-events/publications/
cryptocurrencies-tracing-evolution-of-criminal-nances.
40  Gizmodo, ‘Nearly All NFTs Created With OpenSea’s Free Minting Tool Are Fake, Plagiarized,
or Spam’, 2022, [accessed 21 September 2022], https://gizmodo.com/nearly-all-nfts-
created-with-opensea-s-free-minting-too-1848445234.
41  Engadget, ‘Over 80 percent of NFTs minted for free on OpenSea are fake, plagiarized or
spam’, 2022, [accessed 31 August 2022], https://www.engadget.com/opensea-free-
minting-tool-220008042.html.
42  PLAN International, ‘Online harassment is silencing girls: the EU and its Member States can
do more and better’, 2020, [accessed 3 September 2022], https://plan-international.org/eu/
blog/2020/11/25/online-harassment/.
43  WIRED, ‘Virtual Rape Is Traumatic, but Is It a Crime?’, 2007, [accessed 29 August], https://
www.wired.com/2007/05/sexdrive-0504/
16
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
described how she was “virtually gang raped” within 60 seconds of
joining Meta’s Venues.
44
The woman described the aforementioned incident as rape.
These kinds of virtual experiences pose serious questions about
the applicability of current legislation. Rape requires physical
contact, while by denition an avatar is virtual. However, as the
embodied internet is one of the ways of describing the metaverse,
one can imagine that, as the technology gets more sophisticated,
this crude delineation between physical and virtual will become
increasingly problematic. As these experiences become more
embodied, start to feel more real, we will have to decide at which
point virtual experiences will be equally impactful as those of the
physical realm.
45
It will be important to have a clear idea of what
is to be considered criminal behaviour in the metaverse and to
have matching laws to provide the means to prosecute these
transgressions.
While monitoring behaviour in the metaverse, it is important to
look for new forms of harassment as well. If we were to have
one (virtual) identity in the metaverse and all interactions in this
metaverse are based on blockchain, this might make it possible
to follow everything someone does based on one interaction with
them - providing valuable information for stalkers or extortionists.
This could also be used to send unwanted content. It is possible to
send anyone an NFT or message on the blockchain, but once it is
on the blockchain there is no way for anyone to remove it; this will
mean any harassment may indenitely show up if people look into
your blockchain, blocking any way out of that abuse.
46
Current iterations of the metaverse show how these may be
dangerous for children. At the moment, there is no (effective) age
rating of experiences spaces in the metaverse may offer. In the
VRChat social virtual reality experience platform, users encountered
strip clubs and children were exposed to harmful experiences.
47
Meanwhile in Roblox, people create sex ‘condos‘ where people talk
about sex and make their avatars have virtual sex.
48
This may not
be in line with the platforms’ policies, but children can be confronted
with these experiences nonetheless. The platforms providing
these services will have to provide a safe environment for children
and provide safeguards against these experiences, by moderating
content and behaviour that goes against their terms of use. Finding
a way to effectively protect children from seeing harmful (sexual)
content will be essential for a safe and positive experience for them.
44  Medium, ‘Reality or Fiction?’, 2021, [accessed 29 August], https://medium.com/kabuni/
ction-vs-non-ction-98aa0098f3b0.
45  WIRED, ‘What Should Be Considered a Crime in the Metaverse’, 2022, [accessed 20 July
2022], https://www.wired.com/story/crime-metaverse-virtual-reality/.
46  Molly White, ‘Abuse and harassment on the blockchain’, 2022, [accessed 28 July 2022],
https://blog.mollywhite.net/abuse-and-harassment-on-the-blockchain/.
47   BBC, ‘Metaverse app allows kids into virtual strip clubs’, 2022, [accessed 3 September
2022], https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60415317
48  BBC, ‘Roblox: The children’s game with a sex problem’, 2022, [accessed 3 September 2022],
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60314572
17
Different spaces in the metaverse need moderating for different
behaviours.
A metaverse may present the perfect place for online sexual
grooming. It may provide child sex offenders with opportunities
to engage with children (i.e. through games) and deepen their
interaction with children and/or escalate behaviour without having
to leave this environment. Currently, offenders have to persuade
children in an online game, social media or chatroom to give out
personal details – in the metaverse offenders may be able to carry
out the entire grooming process without such barriers. It will be
very dicult for children to distinguish adults from other children
since it would be dicult to know, especially for children, who they
are talking with. These circumstances will provide a dangerously
enabling environment for grooming efforts and any other form of
(sexual) exploitation of children.
Haptics and advances in tactile technologies open up a sensory
dimension to user interactions. This presents another challenge
in safeguarding children online. For example, could offenders be
virtually brought into a child’s room with the ability to actually
physically sexually abuse them through the child’s haptic devices -
without the offenders even having to leave their homes?
A metaverse may allow users to produce CSAM as well. Even
if children are not involved, law enforcement may still need to
respond. With the visual presentations of avatars becoming more
realistic and the use of haptics adding a physical dimension to these
experiences, this may be reason for concern. It will be important
to nd appropriate regulation for these kinds of situations and
measures for detection, removal and prevention.
Any attempt by the platforms to moderate content and behaviour
in the metaverse will inevitably be imperfect, leaving children open
to being targeted. Since everything that happens in the metaverse
is virtual, it presents a challenge for policing. The experience is
becoming ever more immersive and real, generating an increasingly
real impact, but it may not qualify for the legal terms of (sexual)
abuse since the legislation stipulates for physical acts. Moreover,
technical means to investigate on such platforms as well as
adequate preventative measures lack for law enforcement to be
able to act on these issues. Therefore, law enforcement will need
civil society and policy makers to have discussions on what deviant
behaviour in virtual worlds is to be considered criminal, and how
they can get the legal and technical tools to act on this.
Another form of abuse originates from the ability to earn money
through these platforms. Children may engage in projects to create
mini-games or experiences for these platforms. These projects
may lead to pressure on the children to work more, while the money
generated through the game may not end up evenly distributed to all
18
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
contributors. This leads to abuse and exploitation of the children, in
other words child labour.
49
Terrorism
Terrorists will always try to exploit new technological options to
facilitate their activities
50
; in the case of the metaverse, this may
lead to new opportunities for terrorist organisations, primarily for
propaganda, recruitment and training.
With more immersive technology and related generated data at
their disposal, it will become easier for terrorists to select and target
vulnerable people and tailor their messages to their biases. That will
enable them to more effectively target their propaganda and recruit
people.
With virtual environments becoming more realistic, this may provide
an increasingly useful environment for training, both in generally
available applications and in specically (re-)created environments
and scenarios. As an increasingly accurate and complete digital
twin of reality becomes available, this may provide real-time
information on planned targets. At some point, this may even allow
for military reconnaissance and planning to be carried out within the
metaverse.
On the other hand, the metaverse may allow users to create a
virtual world as they envision the world should be, enabling them to
create a virtual Caliphate or white supremacist state for example.
Members of such places could live their virtual lives according
to rules that may contradict fundamental laws and values of the
society they live in in the physical world. For context, Nazi gas
chambers have already been reported in Roblox.
51
These virtual worlds may even allow them to impose their extremist
rules on anyone entering their ‘state’. This would create a truly
parallel world for these people to live in and act out scenarios
that undermine general acceptance of rule of law. Moreover, such
spaces would provide a perfect environment for recruiting for
terrorist activities in other virtual worlds - and even the physical
world.
49  The Guardian, ‘The trouble with Roblox, the video game empire built on child labour’, 2022,
[accessed 9 August 2022], https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/09/the-trouble-
with-roblox-the-video-game-empire-built-on-child-labour.
50  Nextgov, ‘Violent extremists could nd the metaverse a useful recruiting and organizing
tool – and a target-rich environment.’, [accessed 24 August 2022], https://www.nextgov.
com/ideas/2022/01/metaverse-offers-future-full-potential-terrorists-and-extremists-
too/360494/.
51  The Algemeiner, ‘Children’s Gaming Platform Removes ‘Disturbing’ Nazi Concentration
Camp ‘Experience’ With Gas Chambers’, 2022, [accessed 31 August 2022], https://www.
algemeiner.com/2022/02/21/childrens-gaming-platform-removes-disturbing-nazi-
concentration-camp-experience-with-gas-chambers/.
19
Mis- and disinformation
The current Web2.0 has given rise to the emergence of
unprecedented precision in the capabilities to target specic
demographics to inuence their behaviour, whether it is for
commercial or political gain.
52
The vastly increased amount of data
the new devices can glean from users’ immediate environment
and from the users themselves will have the potential to have a far
greater inuence on people’s behaviour. Since this may destabilise
the communities law enforcement is tasked to protect and the
inuence may be used by criminals to target their victims too, Law
enforcement should be mindful of this.
On the old internet, the ability to gather vast amounts of data about
individual preferences and behaviour by gathering data available
on social media and following what people do online created a
digital trail. This trail could be used to manipulate, identify and
classify people online. The more immersive interactions enabled by
metaverse-related technologies will create a far bigger digital trail.
Unprecedented amounts of data will be gathered that allows for far
greater insights and predictive power of behaviour, and may allow
for the identication of individuals based on the uniqueness of these
interactions.
Insights into people’s preferences and behaviour allows not just
for more accurate targeting of information, it may also allow for
tailoring of content according to these insights. Both by employing
these insights to maximise the chances the intended target is
receptive to a specic message, and by utilising the immersion
of the experience, the power exerted over user behaviour could
increase.
At the same time, misinformation may become impossible to take
down as its proliferation is increasingly decentralised with Web3
technology becoming more widely adopted.
Feasibility of monitoring/logging evidence
Policing the metaverse(s) will be a big challenge. A big responsibility
will fall on the organisations that provide the platforms to monitor
and moderate what happens on their platforms and to provide
law enforcement with the tools to do their job on these platforms.
As with current online activities, this will not be easy and the
challenges there will be amplied and exacerbated with new issues
to overcome.
The nature of metaverse(s) will make policing it more dicult, for
reasons such as:
52  Bastick, Z., ‘Would you notice if fake news changed your behavior? An experiment on the
unconscious effects of disinformation’, Computers in human behavior, Volume 116, March
2021, p. 106633, [accessed 22 August 2022], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106633
20
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
f As the number of platforms and spaces is expected to
proliferate, it will be impossible to police them all in an equivalent
of patrolling the streets with the limited resources available.
f The challenges of monitoring what happens online will be
greatly amplied for the metaverse. It will not just be a matter
of moderating vastly more content, but also of behaviour, which
is both ephemeral in nature and even more context-dependent
than the content we are currently used to.
f Interactions in these worlds may become ephemeral as in the
real world,
53
meaning there will be no traces left behind of your
interactions. If this is the intended nature of such a world, it will
become hard to gather evidence.
f Moreover, it may be hard to determine the ‘reality’ that was
experienced by all parties involved.
f Lastly, with more of people’s interactions moving to the
metaverse the loss of location will increase. With increasing
diculties to establish the location of a user, the criminal
infrastructure or access device used, law enforcement will face
challenges in establishing which country has jurisdiction and
which legal framework will apply.
54
And what if unacceptable behaviour has been detected and it
needs to be punished; how can crimes be effectively punished
in the metaverse? Suspending an account may just lead to
someone opening another, while nding a perpetrator in the
physical world and enforcing the law where they live may be a big
challenge as well. This is not a new challenge, but one that may
be further exacerbated if a platform is based on decentralised and
anonymising technology.
Impact in the physical world
With XR, the metaverse may affect the user’s actions in the physical
world. This is true through the presentation of a virtual reality, either
as an overlay or as a fully immersive image, while in the metaverse.
Having users experience the world through their metaverse devices
will open them to exploits based on the control of this virtual (layer
of) reality.
An immersive XR experience provides an opportunity to inuence
a user in the physical world through the manipulation of the virtual
environment. Users can be tricked into hitting objects and walls, or
being moved to another physical location, through what is called
a ‘Human Joystick Attack’. A perhaps simpler way is to alter the
boundaries of a user’s virtual world through a ‘Chaperone Attack’.
53  Nick Clegg, ‘Making the metaverse: What it is, how it will be built, and why it matters‘, 2022,
[accessed 24 August 2022], https://nickclegg.medium.com/making-the-metaverse-what-it-
is-how-it-will-be-built-and-why-it-matters-3710f7570b04.
54  Europol and Eurojust, ‘Common challenges in combating cybercrime’, 2019, [accessed
6 September 2022], https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-events/publications/
common-challenges-in-combating-cybercrime.
21
A third attack type is the ‘Overlay Attack’, in which the attacker takes
complete control over the user’s virtual environment and provides
their own overlay – the input which denes what users see and
perceive in a virtual environment.
55
These kinds of vulnerabilities
should rstly concern the companies developing XR devices.
Once this kind of vulnerability gets exploited, it may involve law
enforcement depending on the seriousness of the result.
If a lot of unwanted and criminal behaviour goes unregulated and
perpetrators are not held to account, this may result in a toxic and
violent environment. Underlying mental health issues may be further
aggravated if one’s reality is deliberately manipulated by mis- and
disinformation campaigns seeking to condition and control people.
It could even destabilise people to the extent that it makes them
struggle to distinguish between what is real and what is not.
Would it be possible for someone draws a real gun in self-defence
to an XR threat? Do we consider a person (fully) accountable for
these actions in the same way without this blended reality? In
addition, how can we assess how convincing such an experience is,
and if it warrants diminished accountability for the resulting actions?
Finally, how should police respond to someone who is a physical
threat because he/she is under threat from XR realities? These
questions may inuence police work and what we expect from law
enforcement in this future.
Being present regardless of distance
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working and teleconferencing
software has become widely adopted. The metaverse could allow
people to come together in the same virtual room to work. This
would allow for a more in-person experience than with current
remote working technology, despite team members still being
geographically dispersed. With this, it may become feasible to
more exibly compose teams of people with the right expertise
for the case at hand and to facilitate interregional and international
cooperation.
The metaverse as a place where people meet and can therefore
facilitate the contact with the citizens law enforcement is tasked
with protecting as well. It will allow ocers to be more readily
approachable for people in more sparsely populated areas and
digital natives that spend most of their time in a virtual world.
Just patrolling in a virtual car driving around a metaverse will
probably not work very well with potentially endless worlds, both for
deterrence as well as for being approachable. It will likely at least
require tools for ocers to be easily found by people looking for
them and platforms to thoroughly monitor and easily alert police in
case of possible criminal activities.
55  Casey, P., Baggili, I. and Yarramreddy, A., ‘Immersive virtual reality attacks and the human
joystick.’, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, , 2019, 18(2), pp.550-
562.
LE use of metaverse
(and related
technology)
22
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
Practically people in the metaverse may just want one ‘Help!’
function without looking for a representative of the police unit of
their physical hometown. Ecient and effective metaverse policing
may require international cooperation to effectively do this, and this
may extend to between the moderators of the platform and the
police. For the latter, a clear division of work is required, regardless
of the level of cooperation.
Training
VR and XR allows one to experience a situation or environment
independent of space and time. This opens up new possibilities
for training. It allows for the training of rare situations and safe
experience of situations that may be physically dangerous when
experienced in the physical world.
Virtual crime scene
Where this technology can be taken a step further than just a
picture of a crime scene is by adding real-world data and simulation
to fully render a crime scene, including objects and actors in high
denition and using machine learning to simulate the occurrence in
full detail. Because of the accessibility of the metaverse, potentially
both judge and jury could log in and review the simulation in their
own time. The immersive aspect offered, similar to a VR scene,
would allow them to view the crime from any perspective. The
metaverse could allow for the creation of an immersive environment
for the criminal justice system to allow us to:
• understand criminal acts from multiple perspectives;
• view crime scenes fully rendered and in high resolution
using photogrammetry;
• overlay real-world data using digital twin information to simulate
the crime taking place.
56
Virtual experience can also be used to train ocers for many
different tasks by immersing them in any situation. An example is
training for interactions with persons with severe mental illness.
This training helps them recognise the issue and learn how to try to
de-escalate the situation.
57
The Netherlands Police created a virtual reality tool to combat
ethnic proling. This tool places the ocer in a simulated situation
in which they can take action based on what they experience.
After completing these scenarios, they receive feedback and
56  Metapunk, ‘Using the Metaverse to Simulate Crime Scenes’, 2021, [accessed 21 July 2022],
https://www.metapunk.co.uk/metablog/7-2021-using-the-metaverse-to-simulate-crime-
scenes.
57   Force Science, ‘Virtual Reality: The Next Step in Police Training’, 2019, [accessed 30 July
2022], https://www.forcescience.com/2019/05/virtual-reality-the-next-step-in-police-
training/.
23
discuss their performance to learn of potential biases in day-to-day
police activities.
58
A next step in this evolution could be the virtual presence of ocers
at a crime scene to help with the investigation. This would take it
another step towards a metaverse application.
Alternative punishments/interventions
A unique property of an immersive experience is that it allows
you to experience a reality you could not otherwise. This can be
exploited to help create awareness of and empathy for the victim’s
position with offenders. Virtual reality experiences are being used to
have people experience something from another perspective. This
is, for instance, being used to have domestic violence offenders
experience the victim’s perspective in order to create empathy to
reduce the chance they will commit to violence again.
59
Build your online presence and experience the
metaverse
Many countries have been investing in online policing, such as
Estonia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. This is an important step
to build valuable experience with virtual presence. Being present
online makes police ocers more approachable to people in remote
locations and to people who spend most of their time online. With
the great variety of available online platforms, it is important to
gather experience on a few selected major platforms and build on
the experience and tools acquired during this work.
Norway is a great example as it has started establishing its online
presence in 2015 and now has ‘Nettpatrulje‘ or internet patrols in
every district. They are present on several different social media,
gaming and streaming platforms with 509 000 followers for @
politivest on TikTok. A recent start on reddit’s community r/norge
saw 200 comments in the rst hour and 200 000 views over the
rst weekend. This illustrates their advances with online policing.
Moreover, Norway has been actively sharing their knowledge with
other law enforcement agencies in Europe.
60
France showed another example when it launched an initiative
to establish a presence on Fortnite to be available for children
suffering from abuse to share their stories.
61
Reaching out like
58  Het Laatste Nieuws, ‘Antwerpse politie gebruikt voortaan virtual reality om etnisch proleren
tegen te gaan: “Het scenario verandert naargelang de keuzes die ze maken in de simulatie.”’,
2021, [accessed 1 August 2022], https://www.hln.be/antwerpen/antwerpse-politie-gebruikt-
voortaan-virtual-reality-om-etnisch-proleren-tegen-te-gaan-het-scenario-verandert-
naargelang-de-keuzes-die-ze-maken-in-de-simulatie~a04dc477/
59  ‘France trials virtual reality ‘empathy machine’ on domestic violence offenders’, 2021,
[accessed 21 July 2022], https://www.r.fr/en/france/20210925-france-trials-virtual-reality-
empathy-machine-on-domestic-violence-offenders-reverto.
60  Politiet, ‘Police online patrols’, [accessed 23 June 2022], https://www.politiet.no/en/rad/
trygg-nettbruk/police-online-patrol/.
61  Gadgets 360, ‘New Fortnite Mission: Reaching Out to Abused Children’, 2020, [accessed
What to do and
what is being done?
24
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
this can build valuable experience for how to establish an online
presence and what different goals you can achieve when doing this.
While retaining an online presence on social media will still be
very different from policing metaverses, it is an important rst
experience. This rst step from the street into the online world will
provide insights into how to be approachable and gain trust on
online platforms. Moving to gaming platforms may add an extra
dimension that yields more insights into policing open-ended and
immersive worlds. These experiences are important to be able
to understand and discuss what happens and could happen on
these platforms. This is essential knowledge as law enforcement
prepares to serve citizens in the metaverse and to formulate law
enforcement’s needs in conversations with the platforms.
Since online platforms are inherently global in nature, it is most
effective to build a network of law enforcement experts on this
subject. This will help facilitate the exchange of experience and
tools, enabling law enforcement to formulate their requirements for
operating in the metaverse more concisely. Making this a concerted
effort will provide a stronger position and make compliance easier
for platforms.
Recently Denmark, Norway and Sweden have taken the initiative
with Europol to create a law enforcement working group on online
policing. Law enforcement agencies throughout Europe will come
together to share their experience and tools and make sense of (the
development of) online policing together.
Start the conversation
With so much unknown about what the metaverse of the future
will really be like, this may in fact be the perfect opportunity to start
the discussion on law enforcement in the metaverse and how we
think these platforms should work. This will allow us to discuss
the possibilities offered by the platforms and gure out the best
situation instead of just reacting after the fact.
What responsibility can metaverse providers and creators be
expected to take for what happens on their platforms, and how can
people best be served by their police forces in the metaverse? It will
be essential to have civil society discuss what should be considered
unacceptable behaviour and crimes in the metaverse.
Currently legislation is already lacking for present-day cybercrime
and online interactions. With new types of experiences and
possibilities in the metaverse, legislation will be found even more
inadequate for the metaverse. Therefore, it will be important to
raise awareness with our legislators of these issues and the tools
on 20 September 2022], https://gadgets360.com/games/features/new-fortnite-mission-
reaching-out-to-abused-children-2247527.
25
law enforcement will need to full their duties in these new virtual
worlds.
Monitor and experience the metaverse and related
technologies: know what is happening and what you
are talking about
New technology, such as the internet when it rst emerged, has
been largely ignored by law enforcement organisations in the past,
despite individual ocers experiencing them in their private lives.
Legislating for new technology is often compared to driving a car
only using the rear view mirror. It is often done in retrospect, and
by that time new dangers are ahead of you, it is too late.
To anticipate what dangers may exist in the future is therefore
vital is legislative bodies are to have any chance of getting to grips
with potential problems.
Law enforcement needs to build experience in the metaverse and
should nd a way to make use of these private experiences, as
they provide invaluable insight to make sense of what is happening
and accurately assess new developments. We recommend law
enforcement to monitor the development of the metaverse and to
start building experience with online policing and early iterations
of the metaverse. Doing this ocially will help organisations stay
informed on the subject and enable them to assess developments
accurately, answering threats as they emerge.
It is essential for law enforcement to be accurately informed to
meaningfully engage with companies, civil society and lawmakers.
This will not only increase the chances of a serious discussion
and for law enforcements concerns being heard, it may also help
generate understanding of what police can achieve and perhaps
even build some trust in our capabilities to do what we can do in the
metaverse - if we can show we are well-informed of what we talk
about.
Engage with companies creating it
In the early stages of development of any product, the foundations
will be laid for the system based on the requirements known to the
developers at the time. Retrotting a system to new requirements
will be a lot harder than including these in the beginning. Therefore,
it is essential for civil society and law enforcement to share
demands we place on these platforms early on in the adoption of
the metaverse. Being in active conversation with the main actors
developing the metaverse platforms is therefore essential, as it
allows both sides to get a better understanding to help make the
platform a safe place and adapt legislation and law enforcement to
the challenge.
It might be interesting to nd out how people want to contact
the moderators of a platform or the police. If this means there
26
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
should be a way to immediately contact the relevant authority,
this would be a feature that should be discussed. Perhaps there
should be an API standard for law enforcement to connect to all
platforms for such policing needs. These kinds of demands should
be made known as early as possible in the development of the
platform. Perhaps it could even be part of industry standards for
interoperability of metaverses like the metaverse standards forum.
62
62  Metaverse Standards Forum, ‘Leading Standards Organizations and Companies Unite to
Drive Open Metaverse Interoperability’, 2022, [accessed 3 August 2022], https://metaverse-
standards.org/news/press-releases/leading-standards-organizations-and-companies-
unite-to-drive-open-metaverse-interoperability/.
27
The metaverse is still a long way from the visions that are
presented to us by those developing and investing in metaverses
and related technology. There is no way of knowing yet how these
developments will exactly turn out, but the technology is rapidly
evolving. Each evolutionary step can be expected to have a real
impact on society and law enforcement. The history of the internet
and other mainstream technologies has taught us that many
unforeseen applications will likely emerge. Unanticipated side
effects of a technology can ultimately have the biggest inuence.
Whatever may come of it, there is a need for law enforcement to get
out there and experience the technology to stay abreast of these
developments. Having an understanding of what is being developed
will be essential for engaging all relevant actors and building a
picture of the needs and responsibilities of law enforcement in the
metaverse.
Undoubtedly, it is wise to start building experience with establishing
a presence online in virtual worlds and using the technology that is
already available. Online policing is a good way to experience what
it means to have an online presence and to commence establishing
international cooperation. Meanwhile, the experience gained from
investigations into areas such as blockchain and NFTs will yield
valuable information, experience and skills for law enforcement
organisations.
For law enforcement to be successful in their explorations, it
will be essential to pay special attention to the dissemination of
ongoing efforts with relevant technology and online and virtual
environments. The experience should not stay with the team that is
working on it, but has to reach further into the organisation to create
an organisational awareness of the challenges and opportunities
that lie ahead. Building an international network of law enforcement
experts on the subject to exchange on these experiences will help
build knowledge faster and more eciently.
With this primer, the Observatory Function of the Europol
Innovation Lab hopes to have contributed to raising awareness
of and demystifying the metaverse. We will further contribute to
the discussion when developments warrant another look. In the
meanwhile, the Innovation Lab will continue to support European
law enforcement agencies in setting up an online policing network
to help build and exchange experience on the subject.
Conclusion
28
POLICING IN THE METAVERSE: WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT NEEDS TO KNOW
About the Europol Innovation Lab
Technology has a major impact on the nature of crime. Criminals quickly integrate
new technologies into their modus operandi, or build brand-new business models
around them. At the same time, emerging technologies create opportunities for
law enforcement to counter these new criminal threats. Thanks to technological
innovation, law enforcement authorities can now access an increased number
of suitable tools to ght crime. When exploring these new tools, respect for
fundamental rights must remain a key consideration.
In October 2019, the Ministers of the Justice and Home Affairs Council called
for the creation of an Innovation Lab within Europol, which would develop a
centralised capability for strategic foresight on disruptive technologies to inform
EU policing strategies.
Strategic foresight and scenario methods offer a way to understand and prepare
for the potential impact of new technologies on law enforcement. The Europol
Innovation Lab’s Observatory function monitors technological developments
that are relevant for law enforcement and reports on the risks, threats and
opportunities of these emerging technologies. To date, the Europol Innovation
Lab has organised three strategic foresight activities with EU Member State law
enforcement agencies and other experts.
www.europol.europa.eu