I'm sorry but this allegation is very exaggerated and that's not a surprise given that the source is the totally non-sensational Daily Mail. There is no "Metaverse" right now, the closest thing to that being the well-known videogame called Fortnite, which apart from the actual shooter game acts like a virtual space for events such as mini concerts and movie trailer premieres. Even though it's immensely popular it's still not something one could honestly call the "Metaverse". It's neither a persistent world, like an MMO, nor a VR game.

Meta's own attempt at this is a half-baked VR "game" called Horizon Worlds, which is neither really immersive or popular or pretty much of anything more than a huge black hole into which Meta is shoveling money, with little success. It's been out since 2020 and no one has even bothered to review it yet. It's frankly an ongoing disgrace for Meta.

I will let you in a little secret as a lifelong gamer and game reviewer. Unless a game actually features sexual acts, in which case it is an adult game and does have age restrictions, by law, (otherwise it couldn't be distributed) there is no way for anyone to have virtual sex with anyone whether consensually or not. Even in adult games where sex acts are simulated, such a thing can't happen without the consent of both players.

While I don't doubt that the girl might have been harassed by a bunch of idiots trying to stick real close to her, that's probably the extent of the abuse they would be able to inflict on her avatar. Besides, even pretend virtual sex is impossible in a game that is having a hard time simulating... anything below the torso. I'm not even sure that the game supports positional or spatial voice chat. If it does, they might have been able to verbally harass her.

Anyway, virtual harassment is a real thing and it can be extremely dangerous, but that exists everywhere online, in social networks, videogames, even via SMS and e-mail messages. Fortunately, virtual rape is not something you can really do to another player in a VR game.