Virtual reality porn is so realistic is makes people think it’s okay to cheat in real life, scientists warn
Escaping your everyday life to indulge in a little virtual reality romp is not so different from cheating on your partner, scientists have warned
IT may seem like you're spicing up your sex life when you strap on that virtual reality helmet to watch porn - but it's probably doing more harm than good.
Escaping your everyday life to indulge in a casual virtual romp is not so different from cheating on your partner, scientists have warned.
They are also more likely to play out "highly explicit and violent" fantasies because there are no consequences in the virtual reality (VR) world.
Experts are warning that this behaviour has the potential to become addictive and more extreme over time - damaging relationships in the real world.
Dr Madeline Balaam, of Newcastle University's school of computing science, said: "As a society we are always looking for new and novel experiences but the porn industry brings with it an added risk because of its sexist stance and exploitation of women.
"We are already obsessed with body image and the digital industry is no different, creating the perfect virtual woman from Lara Croft to sex-robots. VR porn has the potential to escalate this.
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"Our research highlighted not only a drive for perfection, but also a crossover between reality and fantasy.
"Some of our findings highlighted the potential for creating 3D models of real life people, raising questions over what consent means in VR experiences.
"If a user created a VR version of their real life girlfriend, for example, would they do things to her that they knew she would refuse in the real world?"
The move to internet pornography from books and magazines has largely been associated with more explicit and perverse sexual content, particularly with more violent behaviour, the researchers said.
They observed the behaviour of 45 participants using virtual reality porn to complete a characters story.
Some participants completed the ";perfect sexual experience" that was as close to the real thing as they could get, but others went beyond what was acceptable in real life and even forced themselves upon women.
Lead author, Matthew Wood, said: "But what VR offers for the first time is the opportunity to move from being simply an observer to being a participant and this changes the experience massively.
"One of our findings suggested VR pornography could be something more like cheating on a partner because of the increasing 'reality' of the VR experience.
"We found that for most people the potential of a VR porn experience opened the doors to an apparently 'perfect' sexual experience - a scenario which in the real world no-one could live up to.
"For others it meant pushing the boundaries, often with highly explicit and violent imagery, and we know from current research into pornography that exposure to this content has the potential to become addictive and more extreme over time."
Dr Balaam warned that with the rise of social media life-like 3D images of a person created in VR porn could be used in revenge porn in the future.
She said: "Pornography has been with us forever and is not going to go away.
"But maybe virtual reality gives us the opportunity to influence pornography and introduce some new rules.
"Imagine a scenario, for example where a male participant is made to assume the female role in the virtual game."
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