Companies Need to Be Socially Responsible in the Metaverse Too

Despite headlines about Disney disbanding its metaverse unit and Meta scaling back its ambitions, the metaverse is far from dead: monthly active users crossed 500 million in early 2023, and companies from Walmart to BMW are quietly pressing ahead. But as businesses enter virtual worlds, they face a new category of risk that most are not prepared for.

This Fortune piece argues that companies must take "Digital Social Responsibility" seriously in the metaverse, addressing three interconnected challenges: the ethics of targeting children, the risks of gaming addiction and the amplification of harassment in immersive environments. It sets out three concrete actions businesses should take: influencing platform owners to act, developing industry-wide standards, and building internal compliance capabilities before regulators compel them to do so.

Read here.

Authors: François Candelon, Michael G. Jacobides, Lisa Krayer, and Winson Chen