Confronting metacrime: complexities, enforcement challenges, and regulatory pathways

The metaverse presents ample and unique criminal opportunities or “metacrime”, which challenges existing law enforcement efforts and regulatory norms. Though it shares similarities with conventional cybercrime, metacrime has distinctive features in terms of criminogenic, victimogenic, aetiological, ethical, and regulatory dimensions. Recognising the complexities of metacrime, the paper identifies three primary conundrums with combatting metacrime: an absence of specialised jurisdictions, lack of clear ownership rights, and difficulty in avatar liability. Failure to address these challenges could thwart international efforts to enforce criminal laws and regulations governing the metaverse, blur ownership or other property and individual rights, and hinder the tracing of metacrime offenders. Given these challenges, we argue that governments and regulators must ensure greater responsibility for institutions interacting in the metaverse, strengthen technical standards governing the metaverse, and standardise legal frameworks